Kristen Stewart is set to make her television debut, as the Oscar nominee will lead the upcoming limited series The Challenger.
Who will Kristen Stewart Play in The Challenger?
As reported by Deadline, Stewart will play Sally Ride. The astronaut and physicist became the first American woman to fly in space, doing so as part of the NASA space shuttle astronaut class of 1978. Ride has had frequent mentions throughout American popular culture and was played by Ellen Wroe in the second season of the Apple TV+ sci-fi drama For All Mankind. She died in July 2012 at the age of 61.
Maggie Cohn, whose previous credits include The Staircase and Narcos: Mexico, will serve as showrunner and writer. The project will be executive producers by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners, Kyra Sedgwick’s Big Swing Productions, and Kristen Stewart. Amblin’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey are likewise executive producers. Though a platform is not yet attached to the series, Amazon is said to be close to securing a deal.
The Challenger is based on The New Guys, which is a book by Meredith E. Bagby. The author is partnering with Sedgwick and Valerie Stadler of Big Swing Productions. They are also executive producers.
Stewart, known for her roles in movies like Twilight, Underwater, Happiest Season, Personal Shopper, and Clouds of Sils Maria, has never done a television show before. The actress, who received an Academy Award nomination for her leading role in Spencer, did have a small cameo role in 2022’s Irma Vep. The HBO Original, which was created by Oliver Assayas, a frequent collaborator of Stewart’s, is an expansion of Assayas’ 1996 film of the same name.
Since her Oscar-nominated performance in Spencer, Stewart has starred in Love Lies Bleeding and David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future. Her next movies include Love Me, opposite Steven Yeun, and the road trip comedy Sacramento.
