Ryan Gosling is back under a space helmet for his next movie role, in the 2026 sci-fi epic Project Hail Mary. The movie will see Gosling play an astronaut stranded alone in space, having been sent on a mission from Earth to a distant solar system. This role shares unlikely parallels with a 2018 performance by the actor in a biopic directed by Damien Chazelle. Largely forgotten since its release, First Man actually features one of the finest performances of Gosling’s career.

Chazelle’s movie focused its lens squarely on astronaut Neil Armstrong, played by Gosling, who’s celebrated worldwide as the first person to have walked on the surface of the Moon. The movie covers the true story of Armstrong’s Moon-landing mission, but it also delves into the internal psychology of the astronaut, who, despite the celebrity his unique position in history has brought him, is incredibly introverted and desperately lonely. Inevitably, loneliness is a theme to which Gosling will return in his latest astronaut role as Ryland Grace in Project Hail Mary.

Ryan Gosling Previously Played Astronaut Neil Armstrong In First Man

Gosling’s Portrayal Of Armstrong Focuses On The Astronaut’s Loneliness

Ryan Gosling’s outstanding portrayal of real astronaut Neil Armstrong in First Man isn’t a celebration of his achievement in becoming the first person to walk on the Moon, on July 20, 1969. It’s a profound character study about Armstrong’s loneliness and inability to express his emotions, which makes him the perfect psychological profile for someone who’s set to be sent 200,000 miles away from his loved ones, into the vast nothingness of space.

First Man is a surprisingly somber and withdrawn movie, considering it’s about one of the most talked-about moments in human history. Its emphasis is on the solitude and solace that space travel provides for the introverted character Gosling is playing, who’s also a grieving father. Armstrong is apparently very much at home leading a NASA mission to the Moon. On the other hand, he’s completely ill-equipped to deal with the responsibility of potentially leaving his family without a husband and father, and the burden of pressure that comes with being recognized as the first person on the Moon.

Gosling Plays The Last Astronaut Left On A Survival Mission In Project Hail Mary

Ryland Grace Is Even More Alone And Further From Home Than Armstrong Is In First Man

The conflicting feelings of loneliness, grief, freedom and responsibility that Gosling had to convey when playing astronaut Neil Armstrong were the ideal experience to help him prepare for his next role. Now that Gosling’s upcoming movie Project Hail Mary has wrapped up filming, we can look forward to him playing an astronaut who’s the sole survivor of a mission to save the human race. Based on Andy Weir’s 2021 science fiction novel, the movie is set to begin with Gosling’s character Ryland Grace, unaware of who he is or how he arrived in outer space.

If Neil Armstrong felt alone after being chosen to become the first person on the Moon, and grief at the loss of his daughter, we can only imagine the loneliness that Ryland Grace experiences, alone in a spaceship light years away from Planet Earth, as well as the grief he feels at the loss of his idenтιтy. What’s more, the admittedly extraordinary pressure of making the first successful Moon landing would surely be nothing compared to the burden of responsibility for the whole of humanity’s future resting on your shoulders.

Neil Armstrong is perhaps the closest Ryan Gosling could have come to playing a character going through what Ryland Grace does in Project Hail Mary. Still, the situation that Grace has to deal with is incomparable to anything in human history, including the Moon landings. While we wait for the completion of this movie, however, Damien Chazelle’s First Man, a unexpectedly heart-wrenching biography of Neil Armstrong depicted by Gosling, is a worthy subsтιтute.