PROJECT HAIL MARY Writer Andy Weir’s Next Sci-Fi Novel May Take on Artificial Intelligence

Andy Weiris riding pretty high after the success of Project Hail Mary, and he’s currently working on his next science fiction novel. This time, he may be diving headfirst into one of the messiest and most controversial technologies around with artificial intelligence.

Considering Weir’s background, this could actually be very interesting. The movie adaptation of Project Hail Mary became a box office hit, and earned plenty of praise along the way. With that success putting even more attention on Weir’s work, whatever he writes next is going to have a lot of eyes on it.

Weir offered an early hint about the project during a 2024 interview published by the National Academy of Engineering.

"AI plays a significant role in it," he said. "But I'm doing it my way, not writing a story about robots falling in love or anything."

That sounds about right for Weir. His science fiction tends to be interested in how things actually work, whether he’s figuring out how someone could survive alone on Mars or building an interstellar survival story around real scientific concepts.

AI also happens to be a subject that fits his background particularly well. Before becoming a full-time author, Weir worked as a computer programmer, including a stint at Blizzard where he contributed to Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.

That experience gives him a different technical foundation than many science fiction writers approaching artificial intelligence purely as a storytelling concept.

"Writing a story that involves AI is kind of in my wheelhouse because I know how computers work," he said. "And I know more about machine learning than most fiction writers, I think. So yes, I'm having some fun with that."

Weir has written three novels so far. His first was The Martian in 2011, which Ridley Scott adapted into the 2015 film starring Matt Damon. Weir followed it with Artemis in 2017, a book originally conceived with franchise potential, before moving on to Project Hail Mary in 2021 rather than writing an Artemis sequel.

When previously speaking with ScreenRant, Weir confirmed that the mystery project isn’t connected to any of his previous books.

"I'm working on my next book right now," he said. "I'm not talking about it publicly, but it's science fiction, of course, and it's a new standalone story. It's not a sequel to anything."

Weir has also said he currently doesn’t have a "strong enough" idea to justify a Project Hail Mary sequel. Considering how well that story works on its own, I’m perfectly happy to see him chase a completely different idea instead.

An Andy Weir science fiction novel centered heavily around AI could be fascinating, especially because of his hard sci-fi approach and programming experience. If he applies the same obsessive technical thinking that made The Martian and Project Hail Mary so much fun, there’s plenty of material to play with.

The bigger question is what Weir actually wants to say about artificial intelligence. He has previously criticized modern science fiction for leaning too heavily toward dystopian visions of technology.

He’s also taken issue with Black Mirror, specifically calling out what he considers its "technophobia" and describing the series as "pretty much all about how technology is awful and will ruin the universe."

That perspective makes his upcoming book even more interesting. AI is already an incredibly divisive subject, particularly in entertainment, where concerns surrounding jobs, copyright, creative ownership, misinformation, synthetic media, and the use of artists’ work have turned it into a major industry fight.

A relentlessly optimistic take on the technology could easily rub readers the wrong way if those concerns get brushed aside. At the same time, we don’t actually know what Weir intends to do with it.

His story could celebrate certain applications of AI while digging into its problems. It could explore machine learning from an angle we haven’t seen much in mainstream science fiction. He could even surprise everyone and deliver something far more skeptical than his previous comments about technology might suggest.

Whatever he has cooking, I’m looking forward to it. After The Martian and Project Hail Mary, I’m definitely curious to see what kind of AI-powered science fiction madness he comes up with.