Kristen Stewart Signs on to Play Iconic Astronaut Sally Ride in New Series 'The Challenger'
Kristen Stewart has lined up what will be one of her first big television roles.
The 34-year-old Love Lies Bleeding actress is set to play the iconic astronaut Sally Ride in a limited series called The Challenger. If you were unaware, Sally was the first American woman to make it to space.
Some details about the project, which Kristen will also produce, have been revealed.
Keep reading to find out more…
The Challenger pulls inspiration from Meredith E. Bagby‘s book The New Guys, which documented NASA’s 1978 space shuttle astronaut class. This was the first time that a diverse group of astronauts were selected, according to Deadline.
It was later revealed that Sally was a member of the LGBTQ+ community, making her the first member of the community to travel to space.
The series has some other big stars attached to it. Kyra Sedgwick developed it and will work as a producer. Maggie Cohn is the showrunner and is managing the script. Steven Spielberg‘s production company is also involved!
This marks one of Kristen‘s first big television projects. It looks like Amazon will be picking it up.
“She has never done television, but when she read this she became obsessed with telling the story of Sally Ride from her own unique perspective that I won’t even try to paraphrase because she is so eloquent about it,” Kyra said in a statement shared with the outlet. “She was so stunning in these pitch meetings and that was a huge part of why it has been so competitive. She’s so compelling and was so rabid about telling this story about an American hero who had to hide who she was, in that time.
She continued, saying, “Who better to play Sally Ride than one of the great actors of her generation? As they say in Hollywood, passion wins the day. Her passion for being an executive producer is vast. As dogged as we were about getting the script to her, she has been that dogged about getting it sold in the marketplace.”
According to the report, the series is expected to premiere around the anniversary of the disastrous journey of The Challenger, which Sally helped investigate. It took place on January 28, 1986.
We will update you as we learn more.
Did you see that Kristen had lined up another exciting movie role, which has a tie to her past?