National Geographic's THE RIGHT STUFF Clip and Comic-Con@Home Virtual Panel
National Geographic is producing a series adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s iconic novel The Right Stuff and it will be streaming on Disney+ later this fall. I love this part of our history when the United States started building up its space program, so I’m incredibly excited about watching this show, especially since it will also dive into some untold stories during this time.
Today the Comic-Con@Home virtual panel has dropped that features the cast and crew coming together to talk about the eight-episode limited series. At the 31:00 mark in the video, there’s a clip from the series that is shared.
It’s been explained that the show “takes a clear-eyed look at what would become America’s first ‘reality show,’ as ambitious astronauts and their families become instant celebrities in a competition that could kill them or make them immortal.”
The two main characters at the center of the story are Major John Glenn, a revered test pilot and committed family man with unwavering principles, portrayed by Patrick J. Adams (Suits), and Lieutenant Commander Alan Shepard, one of the best test pilots in Navy history, portrayed by Jake McDorman (What We Do in the Shadows, Lady Bird).
At the height of the Cold War in 1959, the Soviet Union dominates the space race. To combat a national sentiment of fear and decline, the U.S. government conceives of NASA’s Project Mercury, igniting a space race with the Soviets and making instant celebrities of a handful of the military’s most accomplished test pilots. These individuals, who come to be known as the Mercury Seven, are forged into heroes long before they have achieved a single heroic act. The nation’s best engineers estimate they need several decades to make it into outer space. They are given two years.
The rest of the Mercury Seven team includes Lieutenant Gordon Cooper, portrayed by Colin O’Donoghue (Once Upon a Time, Carrie Pilby, The Rite), the youngest of the seven who was selected to everyone’s surprise; Wally Schirra, portrayed by Aaron Staton (Mad Men, Narcos: Mexico, Castle Rock), a competitive pilot with a gift for pulling pranks; Scott Carpenter, portrayed by James Lafferty (The Haunting of Hill House, Small Town Crime), a soulful man who was dubbed “The Poet” by the other astronauts; Deke Slayton, portrayed by Micah Stock (Brittany Runs a Marathon, Escape at Dannemora), a taciturn but incredibly intelligent pilot and engineer; and Gus Grissom, portrayed by Michael Trotter (Underground, The Evening Hour), a no-nonsense test pilot who eventually becomes the second man in space.
The astronauts’ strengths are equaled only by their flaws. As the men succumb to the temptations that surround them, Project Mercury threatens to come apart. At the heart of the historic drama populated by deeply human characters are two men who become icons — Glenn and Shepard — as they jockey to be the first man in space. The entire program is nearly brought to its knees by their intense rivalry.
The series will also tell the story of NASA’s engineers, “who work against the clock as pressures mount from Washington and a transfixed public. And we witness the underbelly of a myth-making propaganda machine headed by NASA’s PR department and aided by the writers and editors at LIFE Magazine.”
As the Mercury 7 astronauts are thrust into the public eye, NASA’s PR department goes into overdrive to paint the perfect picture, aided by the writers and editors at LIFE Magazine. Danny Strong (Billions) plays John “Shorty” Powers, NASA’s omnipresent PR man, constantly taking the astronauts on glad-handing trips to factories and rubber-chicken dinners in order to spur public enthusiasm, and thus, appropriations from congress for the space program. Josh Cooke (Grace and Frankie, he Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) plays Loudon Wainwright Jr., LIFE Magazine’s star reporter, who is tasked with writing the biographies of all seven astronauts and has the keenest look at what’s really transpiring.
The rest of the ensemble cast includes Nora Zehetner (Brick, Creative Control) as Annie Glenn, the wife of John Glenn and his childhood sweetheart who has a speech impediment that can sometimes make communication difficult; Eloise Mumford (Fifty Shades of Grey) as Trudy Cooper, Gordon Cooper’s wife and an accomplished pilot herself, with her rocky marriage to Gordon providing conflict throughout the season; and Shannon Lucio (Prison Break, True Blood) as Louise Shepard, Alan Shepard’s devoted and long-suffering wife.
Patrick Fischler (Twin Peaks, Mad Men) plays Bob Gilruth, a soft-spoken rocket scientist who is the partner of the more brash Chris Kraft, who is portrayed by Eric Ladin (American Sniper). They are critical members of NASA’s Space Task group, charged by President Dwight Eisenhower with putting a man into space faster than seems humanly possible. They’re racing against the clock as pressures mount from Washington and a transfixed public.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson are executive producers on the series along with Mark Lafferty (Castle Rock, Halt and Catch Fire), who is showrunner. Chris Long (The Americans, The Mentalist) directed and executive produced the first episode.