Prime Video has added five actors — Danny Huston, Sofia Black D'Elia, Paul Sparks, Boris McGiver and Shea Whigham — to the regular cast of its upcoming series The Challenger, joining previously announced stars Kristen Stewart and Will Arnett. Created by Maggie Cohn and based on Meredith E. Bagby's book The New Guys, the series dramatises the lead-up to the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the subsequent investigation, and Sally Ride's pioneering role as the first American woman in space, played by Stewart.

The new cast members take on real-life figures connected to the tragedy: Huston plays William Rogers, who headed the disaster investigation; D'Elia plays astronaut Judy Resnik, who died in the explosion; Sparks plays NASA project manager Larry Mulloy; McGiver plays NASA official William "Bill" Lucas; and Whigham plays engineer Roger Boisjoly, who had opposed the launch. Arnett will play NASA's George Abbey, who assigned Ride to her historic 1983 mission. The show, from Big Swing Productions, Amblin Television and Nevermind Pictures, is directed by James Hawes, with Cohn serving as writer, showrunner and executive producer alongside Kyra Sedgwick, Bagby, Stewart and others.