Project Hail Mary's Follow-Up Is Good, But We Still Need Sci-Fi's Best Unofficial Trilogy To Be Completed

Published Aug 21, 2026, 1:45 PM EDT ​​August is a freelance film writer. She studied journalism and cinema at American University. She is a member of the journalism honor society, Kappa Tau Alpha. August has written for various networks and publications, including PBS, Gargoyle Magazine, TheThings, and Identity Theory Magazine. Before returning to entertainment writing, August worked in the Automotive section of U.S. News & World Report. In her free time, August enjoys watching movies in theaters, watching movies at home, listening to podcasts about movies, reading books about movies, watching video essays on movies, talking about movies, thinking about movies, and doing crosswords. Sign in to your ScreenRant account After successfully helming the cinematic adaptation of Andy Weir's 2021 novel, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are onto a new sci-fi project. While their upcoming film is thrilling, we are still in desperate need of a Weir cinematic trilogy. When it was first announced that MGM Amazon Studios would be producing a film version of Weir's Project Hail Mary, Lord and Miller were an unexpected choice for directors. Weir's first sci-fi novel, The Martian, was adapted into an epic survival movie directed by Ridley Scott. In contrast, Lord and Miller were known for directing family comedies such as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The Lego Movie. However, the pair proved to be a perfect match for Weir's more lighthearted novel. Project Hail Mary opened in theaters March 2026 to critical and popular acclaim. The film earned 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $683.5 million at the worldwide box office—making it Amazon’s biggest hit yet. The success of Project Hail Mary left everyone wondering what the triumphant directors would do next—besides writing the coming Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (2027). According to an August 19 report from Deadline, Lord and Miller will be producing an adaptation of Forrest Brazeal's debut satirical sci-fi novel Paradox Inc. for Universal Pictures. While this is an exciting new project, there is still another Weir novel that would be an excellent choice for a follow-up adaptation of the author's work from Lord and Miller. After Project Hail Mary, We Still Need Lord & Miller's Artemis Andy Weir has three sci-fi books—The Martian (2011), Project Hail Mary (2021), and Artemis (2017). His first and third novels have been successfully adapted for the big screen, but there is one more story to go before the unofficial Weir cinematic trilogy is complete. Drew Goddard adapted the screenplay for both The Martian and Project Hail Mary, and we can only hope that he is hard at work on an Artemis script. The 2017novel centers on Jasmine (Jazz) Bashara, a smuggler living in humanity’s first lunar colony. When Jazz attempts to perpetrate her biggest heist yet, she finds herself at the center of a mass conspiracy, and must use her criminal prowess to save her colony (via Penguin Random House). Artemis leans more into comedy and fun action than Weir's first novel. It acts as sort of bridge between his 2011 sci-fi survival-thriller and his 2021 sci-fi buddy-comedy. Considering its central wit, an Artemis feature would be well within Lord and Miller's wheelhouse. The directors have proven uniquely capable of translating Weir's comedy and heart to the big screen. Artemis Is Different From The Martian & Project Hail Mary, But Perfect For The Big Screen © Amazon MGM Studios /Courtesy Everett Collection Now that two out of three Weir sci-fi novels have been adapted for the screen, we won’t be satisfied until the cinematic trilogy is complete. While the 2017 book has a different tone than Weir's other novels—leaning more into the heist genre than the survival genre—it is still worthy of a feature adaptation. The story's combination of sci-fi satire and heist thriller is an intriguing combination with plenty of fodder for an entertaining feature. The story is tonally reminiscent of Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, Mickey 7, which was successfully adapted into a movie in 2025. As such, there is a precedent for a space-colony-based conspiracy thriller to succeed in theaters. Despite its unique qualities, Artemis still shares some key similarities with Project Hail Mary. Both novels feature a reluctant, everyday hero who lives in space. Further, both feature Weir's signature sarcastic comedy and sense of fun. As such, Lord and Miller would be the perfect directing duo to helm an Artemis feature. While they are currently busy producing Paradox Inc. and finishing up Beyond the Spider-Verse, hopefully an Artemis adaptation is on the horizon for Lord and Miller.