The bestselling book, The Martian, by author Andy Weir, has a Red Sox connection that happened years before noted Red Sox fan Matt Damon was cast to play the lead in the hit book-to-screen adaptation directed by Ridley Scott in 2015. Weir was recently a guest on Neil deGrasse Tyson’s podcast StarTalk and revealed where Damon’s character’s name came from, and it’s all because Weir lived in Boston when he wrote his debut novel. Here’s what the writer had to say about the name.
Mark Watney Is Named After A Red Sox Reporter
While on StarTalk to talk about Project Hail Mary, another book that Weir wrote that has become a massive hit movie, he started the conversation by revealing a tidbit about Damon’s character, Mark Watney, in the Golden Globe-winning The Martian. It turns out, the name Watney came from Heidi Watney, who worked as a reporter for New England Sports Network (NESN) for a few years starting in 2008, while Weir was living in Boston and writing the sci-fi novel. As Weir recalled on the podcast:
I lived in Boston when I first started writing [The Martian], and I lived alone because I was a loser. At the time, I was really into the Red Sox games, and they had a sideline reporter named Heidi Watney. And so [I thought], ‘I like that name. I’m taking it.’
The hosts of the show and Weir then joked about Watney getting compensation for the name choice, before moving on to discuss the juggernaut that is Project Hail Mary, and where Weir admitted he felt deGrasse’s presence when writing his novels. I couldn’t help but think about how perfectly it worked out in the end that Matt Damon would end up playing the role of Watney.
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Superfan Matt Damon Was A Perfect Choice
The Martian was published in 2011 by Weir on Amazon Kindle and became a surprise hit. A hardcover publication followed, but that was after the novel was optioned for a movie in 2013. By 2014, Scott was attached to direct, and Damon was picked to star in the lead role of a scientist who finds himself alone on Mars. Keep in mind, this is five years after Weir named the character when he started writing the book in 2009.
I don’t think it’s news to anyone that Matt Damon is a massive Red Sox fan. Playing the role of a character who was named after a reporter for that historic team from Damon’s hometown almost seems too wild to believe. It’s like an Easter Egg that was snuck in before there was any way to know the novel would be turned into a film, much less before Damon ended up playing the role.
Weir may have called himself “a loser” on StarTalk, but that certainly isn’t true these days. Not only can you watch The Martian with the AMC+ addition to your Prime subscription, but Project Hail Mary is one of the biggest hits on the 2026 movie schedule so far. He’s come a long way from those nights watching Sox games by himself.
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