Stewart feels like a perfect pick for Ride, who was not only the first American woman to go into space but was also the first LGBTQ+ person to hit the stars, though she would not reveal her status as a queer woman until her death when her nearly three-decade romance with tennis pro Tam O’Shaughnessy was finally revealed in her obituary. (Ride was also previously married to astronaut Steven Hawley in the 1980s.) Stewart herself is openly LGBTQ and recently starred in the sweaty sapphic thriller “Love Lies Bleeding,” which means that aspect of Ride’s life may finally be presented publicly.
The series will be written by Maggie Cohn, who will also serve as showrunner. She has previously worked on true story-inspired shows like “American Crime Story,” “The Staircase,” and “Narcos: Mexico,” which also bodes well for “The Challenger.” The series will be based on Meredith E. Bagby’s book “The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel,” which follows the 1978 class of astronauts to which Ride belonged. Along with Ride, the group included the first Black astronaut, the first Asian American astronaut, and a married couple, finally diversifying the astronaut field a bit from the all-white, all-male crews that had come before.
Though Stewart has never lead a television series before, this feels like the perfect project for her to really sink her teeth into. She’s done some absolutely amazing film roles and has a passion for Ride’s story, according to Deadline, so here’s hoping we get to see her bring the American hero to our TVs sometime soon.
Source link
