EXCLUSIVE: The Challenger, Prime Video‘s ’80s-set NASA limited series, has expanded its cast with the addition of six as recurring: William Fichtner (Lucky), Kevin Carroll (Widow’s Bay), Eric Lange (Lucky), Adelaide Clemens (R.J. Decker), Louisa Jacobson (The Gilded Age) and Hunter Burke (Sweet Magnolias).
Fichtner plays Nobel physicist Richard Feynman, with Carroll as his fellow physicist, Professor Arthur Walker. Lange portrays General Donald Kutyna (of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident), with Clemens as NASA astronaut Rhea Seddon, Jacobson as Tam O’Shaughnessy — partner of Kristen Stewart’s astronaut and physicist Sally Ride — and Burke as astronaut Steve Hawley.
Inspired by Meredith E. Bagby’s 2023 book The New Guys, The Challenger chronicles the events leading up to the Challenger disaster, the investigation that followed, and Ride’s groundbreaking journey as the first American woman in space.
Watch on Deadline
The Challenger disaster was of course the 1986 breakup of NASA’s eponymous space shuttle shortly after launch, which left all seven crew members dead.
Marking Stewart’s television starring debut, The Challenger is created by Maggie Cohn (The Staircase, American Crime Story), who serves as writer, executive producer, and showrunner. James Hawes (One Life, Slow Horses) directs and also executive produces, along with Kyra Sedgwick and Valerie Stadler for Big Swing Productions; Cohn, Hawes, and Bagby; Stewart, Dylan Meyer, and Maggie McLean for Nevermind Pictures; and Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey for Amblin Television.
Other previously announced cast includes Will Arnett as George Abbey, Danny Huston as William Rogers, Sofia Black D’Elia as Judy Resnik, Paul Sparks as Larry Mulloy, Boris McGiver as William ‘Bill’ Lucas and Shea Whigham as Roger Boisjoly.
Fichtner is repped by Paradigm, Thruline Entertainment, Principal Entertainment, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern; Carroll by Innovative Artists and Susanna Griffith Talent and Josiah Akinyele at ColorCreative; Lange by Innovative and Trademark Talent; Clemens by Gersh, Untitled Entertainment, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman; Jacobson by CAA, Untitled, and Schreck Rose Dapello; and Burke by Alexander White Agency and Haven Entertainment.
