One of the most anticipated limited series of 2027 is heading to Georgia this summer. The Challenger, Amazon Prime Video‘s new prestige drama about the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, is scheduled to begin principal photography on August 24, 2026, running all the way through January 29, 2027. The production will operate locally under the code name “Dragonfly” and will be headquartered at Assembly Studios in Doraville, according to local crew union IATSE 479. That’s a significant production run — five months of filming right here in Georgia.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the series was originally announced with Shadowbox Studios as its home base before the production shifted to Assembly Studios in Doraville. The reason for the move isn’t hard to figure out — Shadowbox Studios and its affiliate Henrico 183 have been actively pursuing plans to convert a nearly 200-acre property adjacent to their south DeKalb campus into a massive data center, spending more than $30 million on the development and filing a lawsuit in August 2026 against DeKalb County after the county’s moratorium on new data centers blocked them from moving forward. With Shadowbox’s attention and resources increasingly focused on that data center battle rather than film production, it makes sense that a major long-term production like The Challenger would look elsewhere for a more stable home base.
What the Series Is About
The Challenger tells the story of one of the most defining moments in space history — the unprecedented events leading up to the tragedy, and the shocking investigation that followed. As the members of the 1986 Rogers Commission interrogate the complex inner workings of NASA to find what, or who, was responsible for the Challenger’s doomed fate, the show explores Commission member Sally Ride’s personal journey. It follows her, and the rest of the diverse Astronaut Class of ’78, through the ranks of the shuttle program, through initial recruitment and training, professional and personal highs and lows, until her historic glass ceiling moment as she becomes the first American woman in space. aol
The series will detail the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster that occurred on January 28, 1986, and resulted in the deaths of seven crew members. For anyone who lived through that January morning, it remains one of the most visceral collective memories in American history — the kind of event that people remember exactly where they were when they heard the news. MovieWeb
The Source Material
The Challenger is adapted from Meredith E. Bagby‘s 2023 book The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel. The book chronicles the groundbreaking NASA Astronaut Class of 1978 — the first class to include women and minorities — and Bagby is among the executive producers on the series. Yahoo!
The Cast
Kristen Stewart plays Sally Ride — and this is her television debut. That’s worth noting. Stewart is an Academy Award-nominated actress who has been deliberate about the projects she takes on, and choosing a TV role for the first time is a meaningful decision. While best known for her role as Bella Swan in the Twilight Saga, Stewart has made a name for herself in critically acclaimed films such as Personal Shopper, Lizzie, and Love Lies Bleeding. Her Academy Award nomination came for Spencer, in which she played Princess Diana. More recently, she made her feature directorial debut with The Chronology of Water, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025. Stewart has been attached to the Sally Ride role since 2024 — a long development road that finally came to fruition when Amazon officially greenlit the series in March 2026. Art ThreatMovieWeb
Ride herself is a fascinating and complex figure. On June 18, 1983, Dr. Sally Ride made history as a flight engineer aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger during the STS-7 mission. Her second flight occurred on October 5, 1984, on the STS-41G. Ride sadly passed away on July 23, 2012, at the age of 61. Stewart has a history of playing queer roles, including in Lizzie, Love Lies Bleeding, and the holiday romantic comedy Happiest Season, so The Challenger feels like a natural fit. Space.comMovieWeb
Will Arnett joins Stewart as the second confirmed cast member. Arnett will play George Abbey, the Director of Flight Crew Operations for NASA’s Space Shuttle, who assigned Sally Ride to the crew of 1983’s STS-7 — the mission that made her the first American woman in space. Arnett is a seven-time Emmy nominee whose recent work includes The Morning Show, Twisted Metal, BoJack Horseman, and Arrested Development. He also has Tony Gilroy‘s film Behemoth! coming up, alongside Pedro Pascal, Matthew Lillard, and Olivia Wilde. DeadlineThe Hollywood Reporter
The Creative Team
The production pedigree behind this one is genuinely impressive. The Challenger is created by showrunner and executive producer Maggie Cohn, who also writes the series. Cohn’s previous credits include The Staircase and American Crime Story — two of the most acclaimed true-crime limited series of the past decade. She knows exactly how to handle real events with dramatic weight and sensitivity. Yahoo!
James Hawes is set as director and executive producer. Hawes directed multiple episodes of Slow Horses and Black Mirror — two series that are about as different in tone as television gets, which speaks to his range. Yahoo!
The series originates from the trio of Amblin Television, Big Swing Productions, and Nevermind Pictures. Executive producers include Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank for Amblin, Valerie Stadler and Kyra Sedgwick for Big Swing, and Dylan Meyer with Maggie McLean for Nevermind Pictures. Sedgwick said of the project: “Meredith, Valerie, and I at Big Swing have been passionately developing this project since 2017, and we are thrilled to be partnering with Amblin and Amazon MGM Studios.” mxdwn TelevisionMovieWeb
Peter Friedlander, head of global television for Amazon MGM Studios, said: “Sally Ride’s courage and brilliance changed history, and we couldn’t imagine a more powerful actor to bring her story to life than Kristen Stewart.” Space.com
The Georgia Connection
Production is set to begin August 24, 2026, with Assembly Studios in Doraville serving as the home base, running through January 29, 2027, according to IATSE 479. Assembly Studios — the massive production complex built on the former GM plant site in Doraville — is one of Georgia’s premier production facilities, and a five-month booking there signals the scale of what Amazon is building. For context, that’s a longer Georgia production run than most feature films manage. AJC
No background casting agency has been officially announced yet — we’ll update this post as soon as that information is made available. Keep an eye on our Facebook group for the latest updates as August approaches.
When Can We Watch It?
No official premiere date has been announced yet. The series is expected to release around the 40th anniversary of the tragedy — which would put a 2026 premiere in the frame, though with filming not starting until late August and running into early 2027, a 2027 release is more realistic. We’ll keep you posted as more details emerge. IMDb
