Will Arnett is set to star with Kristen Stewart in The Challenger.
The actor will play George Abbey, the influential NASA official often referred to as the architect of the modern astronaut corps, in Prime Video’s upcoming limited series, ABC Audio has confirmed.
Arnett joins Stewart, who, as previously reported, will portray Sally Ride in her TV debut.
The Challenger is created by Golden Globe winner Maggie Cohn. She also writes, executive produces and showruns the program, which is inspired by Meredith E. Bagby’s 2023 book The New Guys. James Hawes, who has worked on Slow Horses and Black Mirror, will direct and executive produce the show. Kyra Sedgwick, Stewart and Bagby also executive produce.
The series follows “the gripping story of one of the most defining moments in space history, both the unprecedented events leading up to the tragedy, and the shocking investigation that followed,” according to Prime Video.
“As the members of the 1986 Rogers Commission interrogate the complex inner workings of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to find what, or who, was responsible for the Challenger’s doomed fate, the show explores Commission member Sally Ride’s personal journey,” its description continues. “We follow Sally, and the rest of the diverse Astronaut Class of ’78, through the ranks of the shuttle program, through initial recruitment and training, professional and personal highs and lows, until Sally’s historic glass ceiling moment as she becomes the first American woman in space.”
“There is no one better than Maggie Cohn to bring to life the complex story of the Challenger and the new class of astronauts recruited by NASA in the early 1970s, all through the eyes of an American hero, Sally Ride,” Sedgwick said in a press release when the project was announced back in March.
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