Creators of Project "Hail Mary" spent weeks approving flags – Russia, India, and China are missing from the merchandise
Getting into space might actually be easier than getting flag approvals for a mission patch. The creators of Project "Hail Mary" shared some details on the process.
The patch for the Hail Mary spacecraft in the movie features flags from 17 countries, but the filmmakers couldn't just slap them onto the emblem and call it a day. Every single flag needed official clearance before it could be used.
Some countries wanted approval not just for how their flag appeared, but for exactly where it sat on the patch. Others cared more about which flags would end up bordering their own.
According to costume designer Glyn Dillon, the whole approval process took weeks. In the end, merchandise and promotional versions of the patch needed separate designs, with the flag count reduced or dropped entirely.
Whenever you make a film, absolutely everything you do has to go through clearance. So when it came to the patch and the use of the flags, we found out that we needed permission.
Even the vinyl soundtrack release has a different flag lineup – India, China, and Russia are missing from it entirely:
A similar situation played out for real, off screen. During Artemis II, the crew initially mounted the American and Canadian flags in the wrong order, then swapped them to match U.S. flag protocol.
Turns out, getting flags in the right order is somebody's actual job.
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