Drew Goddard makes complicated genre stories enjoyable by giving actors something to work out. We rate his wit and his feel for frightened people, though his fondness for explanations can wear down the pleasure.
Fi1m perspective
Ryan Gosling wakes on a spaceship in Project Hail Mary (2026) without knowing where he is or even his own name. Drew Goddard’s screenplay lets him discover the predicament alongside us, with enough work for the actor to make thinking entertaining. We warmed to Grace because Gosling plays each scrap of understanding as a small victory over fear. That is Goddard at his most engaging: giving a complicated premise to someone we want to spend time with.
Before Cloverfield (2008) took him into features, he wrote for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alias and Lost. On Alias (2001), he shared writing duties with Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Jeff Pinkner, among others. Its accumulating explanations of the Rambaldi relics become less interesting the longer they go on, though that cannot fairly be laid at one writer’s door. The stronger human company in Buffy and Lost makes their uneven plotting easier to forgive.
His directorial debut, The Cabin in the Woods (2012), finds a better use for his urge to explain how things work. With co-writer Joss Whedon, he puts administrative staff behind the familiar spectacle of young people in danger at a remote cabin. The control-room double act is worth an evening, and the practical business of managing the horror gives the comedy something specific to work with. The cost is that the young people receive less attention and the jokes keep interrupting the fear. We recommend it readily, provided being frightened is not the main requirement.
Writing The Martian (2015), adapted from Andy Weir’s novel, gave him complex material to make comprehensible. He returned to directing with the motel-set ensemble thriller Bad Times at the El Royale (2018). But Project Hail Mary, another Weir adaptation, gives us the clearest evidence here of what his screenwriting can do. Working with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, he lets Grace talk through his fear and gives Gosling room to register the answers.
Project Hail Mary also shows how easily he can overstay a welcome. The flashbacks to Earth take up too much of the film, which runs half an hour too long. Gosling remains good company, but the interruptions matter. We would welcome another science problem from Goddard, with fewer flashbacks attached.
Biography
Drew Goddard is an American screenwriter, director and producer. He began his career writing episodes for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Alias and Lost.
He wrote the screenplays for Cloverfield (2008), World War Z (2013) and The Martian (2015), the last of which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Goddard also directed The Cabin in the Woods (2011) and Bad Times at the El Royale (2018). He wrote the screenplay for Project Hail Mary (2026).
Goddard created the Netflix series Daredevil (2015–2018) and directed several episodes of The Good Place.
