Deadline reports that Will Arnett (Arrested Development, BoJack Horseman) has been cast opposite Kristen Stewart (Charlie’s Angels, Twilight) in a limited series for Prime Video to be titled The Challenger. The series, inspired by author Meridith E. Bagby’s The New Guys, will follow the timeline of the 1986 Challenger disaster – the events leading up to it, the subsequent investigation into what went wrong, and the revolutionary journey of Sally Ride as the first American woman in space.
The Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when the shuttle broke apart 73 seconds into its initial flight on live national broadcast and resulted in the death of all seven crew members on board; Dick Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. As the first fatal American spacecraft accident mid-flight, the mission has been used as a case study for multiple facets of what now defines modern space travel.
The New Guys follows the historic 1978 NASA astronaut class of Group Eight, which included the first American women, the first African Americans, the first Asian American, and the first gay person to fly to space.
Per Deadline, Arnett will play the role of George Abby, the Director of Flight Crew Operations for NASA’s Space Shuttle who assigned physicist and astronaut Ride (Stewart) to the 1983’s STS-7 crew. The role of Sally Ride will be Stewart’s television debut.
The Challenger originates from the trio of Amblin Television, Big Swing Productions, and Nevermind Pictures, with Deadline reporting James Hawes (Slow Horses, One Life) set as director and executive producer. Listed as well as EPs are; Justin Falvey (The Americans, Into the West) and Darryl Frank (Masters of the Air, The Haunting of Hill House) for Amblin, Valerie Stadler (Reversion, Space Oddity) and Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) for Big Swing, and Dylan Meyer (Moxie, The Wrong Girls) with Maggie McLean (Rise of the Dinosaurs, The Chronology of Water) and star Stewart for Nevermind. Series creator Maggie Cohn (American Crime Story, The Staircase) serves as writer, showrunner, and EP.
Arnett’s notable and recent credits, via Deadline, include the upcoming Tony Gilroy (Andor, The Bourne Legacy) film Behemoth!, Bradley Cooper’s (A Star Is Born, Silver Linings Playbook) Is This Thing On?, the role of Gob Bluth in Arrested Development, and 30 Rock. He can also be seen as a co-host for the podcast SmartLess. Arnett is repped by Sloan, Offer, Weber and Dern, and CAA.