Kristen Stewart has been cast in the Prime Video limited series The Challenger. The series will essentially be a biographical drama on the life and legacy of Sally Ride, the first American woman to go to space, set against the backdrop of one of the biggest tragedies in NASA‘s space program. The character-driven space drama will see Stewart playing the main protagonist.
Kristen Stewart plays astronaut in her first major TV role
The Twilight star, who is also serving as a producer on the upcoming biographical space drama, will portray a physicist and NASA astronaut who later served as a member of the Rogers Commission investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The series is based on the non-fiction book The New Guys, written by Meredith E. Bagby.
“Sally Ride’s courage and brilliance changed history, and we couldn’t imagine a more powerful actor to bring her story to life than Kristen Stewart,” Peter Friedlander of Amazon MGM Studios said in an official statement.
Maggie Cohn will serve as the writer, executive producer, and showrunner for the series, while James Hawes is attached to direct. The show is produced by Big Swing Productions, Amblin Television, and Nevermind Pictures, with Cohn, Stewart, Kyra Sedgwick, and Hawes among the executive producers.
“Meredith, Valerie, and I at Big Swing have been passionately developing this project since 2017, and we are thrilled to be partnering with Amblin and Amazon MGM Studios,” Kyra Sedgwick said in a statement.
The series will follow Sally Ride and the rest of the members of NASA’s 1978 astronaut class as they rise through the ranks of the shuttle program, with the Challenger incident serving as a key anchor point. “‘The Challenger’ tells 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,” the official logline reads.
Notably, the Challenger disaster marked the tragic death of seven crew members aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, which broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff.
The show will also focus on Ride’s personal journey as she navigates professional challenges in a male-dominated space program. This marks Stewart’s first major television role, and she will be looking to do justice to a high-stakes historical drama rooted in both personal and global significance.
