‘Project Hail Mary’ author apologises for calling new ‘Star Trek’ “shit”, claims remarks were taken out of context
Andy Weir, the author of Project Hail Mary, has apologised to the executive producer of Star Trek for saying the series was “shit”, claiming his comments were “salacious sound bytes”.
The writer came under fire after he blasted new iterations of the franchise on The Critical Drinker’s podcast last week, in which he said he did not enjoy many of the more recent versions of the series.
He also revealed that Star Trek bosses, including executive producer Alex Kurtzman, turned down an idea he once pitched to them, saying: “He [Kurtzman], as a person, is a really nice guy. But at the same time, those shows are shit. He is a nice guy, but they didn’t accept my pitch so, you know, fuck ’em.”
As such, Weir’s comments attracted criticism within the literary community, as Crime 101 author Don Winslow posted on X: “When you have your moment don’t use it to crap on other writers’ work. For the record, Alex Kurtzman is a visionary writer, creator, producer and you owe him an apology… writer to writer.”
However, it seems Weir may have taken this statement on board to a certain extent, as he later posted a public apology to Kurtzman on Facebook on March 30th.
The author began: “Hey, Alex. Andy Weir here. I’m posting to apologize about stuff I said on the Critical Drinker‘s podcast. I feel like my quotes were taken out of context as salacious sound bytes. I hope you saw the other parts where I said how much I like you as a person and what a nice guy you are.”
Acknowledging that he intended to be “funny” but that his comments came across as “disrespectful and mean”, Weir added: “I’m so sorry for that”.
The Project Hail Mary writer continued: “I’m a blunt person – always have been. And it’s been 10 years since the media cared what I had to say about anything so I kind of forgot to watch my words when I have a film in theaters. In a couple months I’ll be back in my cave writing novels and no one will care again.”
It comes as the movie adaptation of Weir’s 2021 novel Project Hail Mary has made a huge splash at the global box office. With Ryan Gosling in the lead role of the sci-fi epic, it has become the highest-grossing film of the year so far, bringing in over $300 million.
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