Known for her performances in the Twilight franchise, Kristen Stewart is now stretching her limits by exploring new ventures. While Stewart is preparing for her directorial debut with “The Chronology of Water,” she is also making headlines with her first major television role. After blessing the big screen with some incredible performances, Stewart will next be seen in a television series in the role of a renowned American astronaut.
What is Kristen Stewart up to?
Oscar-nominated actress Kristen Stewart is all set with her new project, a television series. Stewart will make her TV debut in the limited series “The Challenger,” about astronaut and physicist Sally Ride, known as the first American woman in space.
The series is based on the book “The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel,” written by Meredith E. Bagby. The novel is said to be somewhat like the 1979 book The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, which was also adapted into a movie of the same name. The novel is about the pilots engaged in U.S. postwar research with experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft as well as documenting the stories of the first astronauts selected for NASA’s Project Mercury program, which included the first American woman, the first African American, the first Asian American, and the first gay person to fly to space. The team was known as The F*cking New Guys by the military at the time, and the group was known as trailblazing explorers who broke barriers and blasted through glass ceilings.
As for Stewart’s upcoming TV series, she will be portraying Sally Ride. She was the first American woman to fly on the space shuttle and became an instant celebrity in the process. Ride, who passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2012, was praised by President Barack Obama as ‘a national hero and a powerful role model.‘ He noted, “As the first American woman to travel into space, Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model. She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars and later fought tirelessly to help them get there by advocating for a greater focus on science and math in our schools.”
Ride was indeed a big name in history, and given Stewart’s impressive acting resume, she is probably a good fit for the role and could do justice to Ride’s character.
The series is written by Maggie Cohn, who is known for writing the acclaimed television series “American Crime Story” (2016), “Lou” (2022), and “The Staircase” (2022).
The release date of “The Challenger” has not yet been revealed.
