Will Arnett has joined Prime Video‘s limited series The Challenger, which stars Kristen Stewart as astronaut Sally Ride.
Arnett will play NASA official George Abbey in the drama, which is inspired by the 2023 book The New Guys by Meredith E. Bagby. The Challenger will recount “the events leading up to the Challenger disaster, the investigation that followed, and Sally Ride’s groundbreaking journey as the first American woman in space,” its logline reads. Big Swing Productions, Amblin Television, and Stewart’s Nevermind Pictures are producing the series.
As director of flight operations for NASA, Abbey was the person who assigned Ride to the crew for a 1983 mission aboard the space shuttle Challenger, making her the first American woman in space. Abbey later became director of the Johnson Space Center. Ride flew one more shuttle mission and was part of the ground-based flight control team on several others before serving on the commission that investigated the 1986 explosion of the Challenger.
Prime Video greenlit The Challenger in March, marking Stewart’s first ongoing role in a TV or streaming series.
Maggie Cohn (The Staircase, Impeachment: American Crime Story) created The Challenger and serves as writer and showrunner. Cohn executive produces with director James Hawes; Kyra Sedgwick and Valerie Stadler for Big Swing Productions, which developed Bagby’s book; Bagby; Stewart, Dylan Meyer and Maggie McLean for Nevermind Pictures; and Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey for Amblin Television.
Arnett is coming off the feature film Is This Thing On?, which he also co-wrote, and a guest role on The Madison at Paramount+. The seven-time Emmy nominee and SmartLess co-host’s recent work also includes The Morning Show, Twisted Metal along with prior roles in BoJack Horseman, Arrested Development and 30 Rock. He has Tony Gilroy’s film Behemoth! up next, alongside Pedro Pascal, Matthew Lillard and Olivia Wilde. Arnett is repped by CAA and Sloane Offer.
