''The Right Stuff'' is an American

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...

limited television series, loosely based on the 1979 book of the same name by

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

and its 1983

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

, that premiered on October 9, 2020, on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

. It is the third installment in the titular franchise. It explores the origins and growth of the United States' space program. On April 3, 2021, Disney+ canceled the series due to a redesign in the NatGeo channel's focus. Show financier Warner Bros. Television is looking to shop the series to other networks. The series was removed from Disney+ on May 26, 2023, amidst the Disney+ and

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

purge.

Premise

''The Right Stuff'' takes a "gritty, anti-nostalgic look at what would become America's first reality show as the obsessive original

Mercury Seven The Mercury Seven were the group of seven astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1. Their names were publicly announced by NASA on April 9, 1959: Scott ...

astronauts and their families become instant celebrities in a competition that will either kill them or make them immortal. The eight-part, one-hour-per-episode drama will follow the protagonists from the Mojave Desert to the edges of space, with future seasons carrying through to humankind’s greatest achievement: the moon landing."

Cast and characters

Main

* Jake McDorman as

Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he became the List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astr ...

* Patrick J. Adams as

John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1 ...

Colin O'Donoghue Colin O'Donoghue (born 26 January 1981) is an Irish actor and musician, best known for portraying Captain Hook, Captain Killian "Hook" Jones on the ABC TV show ''Once Upon a Time (TV series), Once Upon a Time''. He appeared in the horror film, ...

Gordon Cooper Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. (March 6, 1927 – October 4, 2004) was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force Aviator, pilot, and the youngest of the Mercury Seven, seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the f ...

* James Lafferty as

Scott Carpenter Malcolm Scott Carpenter (May 1, 1925 – October 10, 2013) was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, astronaut, and aquanaut. He was one of the Mercury Seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury ...

* Aaron Staton as

Wally Schirra Walter Marty Schirra Jr. ( ; March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was an American naval aviator (United States), naval aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. In 1959, he became one of the Mercury Seven, original seven astronauts chosen for Pro ...

* Michael Trotter as

Gus Grissom Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was an American engineer and pilot in the United States Air Force, as well as one of the original Mercury Seven selected by the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration fo ...

Micah Stock Micah Stock (born December 31, 1988) is an American actor best known for his roles in the Sundance breakout ''Brittany Runs a Marathon'', as Doug in Netflix’s ''Bonding (TV series), Bonding'' and as Kevin in the FX original series ''Kindred (mi ...

Deke Slayton Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton (March 1, 1924 – June 13, 1993) was an American Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts. He went on to become NASA's first Chief of the Astronaut O ...

* Eric Ladin as Chris Kraft * Patrick Fischler as Bob Gilruth * Nora Zehetner as Annie Glenn * Eloise Mumford as Trudy Cooper * Jackson Pace as

Glynn Lunney Glynn Stephen Lunney (November 27, 1936 – March 19, 2021) was an American NASA engineer. An employee of NASA since its creation in 1958, Lunney was a flight controller, flight director during the Project Gemini, Gemini and Project Apollo, Apo ...

Shannon Lucio Shannon Lucio (born June 25, 1980) is an American actress. Biography Born in Denver, Colorado, Lucio grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and graduated from John Marshall High School. Her family is of Italian descent. She is a graduate of the Uni ...

as Louise Shepard

Recurring

* Sacha Seberg as

Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( ; ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German–American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and '' Allgemeine SS'', the leading figure in the development of ...

* Jordan Woods-Robinson as Mike Turley * Rachel Burttram as Betty Grissom * Jade Albany Pietrantonio as Rene Carpenter * Laura Ault as Jo Schirra * Chandler Head as Cam Cooper * Lucy Capri as Janita Cooper * Taegan Burns as Laura Shepard * Avery Burns as Julie Shepard * Kyra Johnson as Lyn Glenn * David Bolinger as David Glenn * Victoria White as Marge Slayton * Christopher Cassarino as Henri Landwirth *

Mamie Gummer Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer (born August 3, 1983) is an American actress. She starred in the title role of The CW series '' Emily Owens, M.D.'' (2012–2013), and played the recurring role of Nancy Crozier on ''The Good Wife'' (2010–2015) and its ...

as Jerrie Cobb * Kaley Ronayne as Dee O'Hara * Josh Cooke as Loudon Wainwright Jr. *

Danny Strong Danny Strong (born ) is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. As an actor, Strong is best known for his roles as Jonathan Levinson in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', Doyle McMaster in ''Gilmore Girls'' and Danny Siegel in '' Mad ...

as John A. Powers * Jordan Blair Mangold Brown as Eunice * Elizabeth D'Onofrio as Doris

Episodes

Production

On July 25, 2017, it was announced that

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

was partnering with

Appian Way Productions Appian Way Productions is an American film and television production company founded in 2001 by actor and producer Leonardo DiCaprio. Since its launch, Appian Way has released a diverse slate of films, including Academy Award–winning films ' ...

and

Warner Horizon Television Warner Bros. Television Studios, operating under the name Warner Bros. Television (abbreviated as WBTV; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division), is an American television production and distribution studio and the flagship studio o ...

to option the screen rights to

's 1979 novel '' The Right Stuff''. The series was set to be written by Will Staples who was also expected to executive produce alongside

Leonardo DiCaprio Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (; ; born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. Known for Leonardo DiCaprio filmography, his work in biographical and period films, he is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received ...

and Jennifer Davisson. On February 10, 2019, it was announced during the

Television Critics Association The Television Critics Association (TCA) is a group of approximately 200 American and Canadian television critics, journalists and columnists who cover television programming for newspapers, magazines and web publications. The TCA accepts appli ...

's annual winter press tour that National Geographic had given the production a series order. David Nutter was expected to direct the premiere episode. Additional executive producers were set to include Mark Lafferty and Lizzie Mickery with Lafferty also serving as showrunner. The series premiered on October 9, 2020. On November 20, 2020, the series was granted a tax credit to film a second season in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. The show had yet to be officially renewed at the time. However, on April 3, 2021, it was announced that Disney+ had canceled the series due to a change in NatGeo's programming focus. Show financier Warner Bros. Television is looking to shop the series to other networks such as

TNT Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...

and

HBO Max Max (known in other countries as, and soon to be reverted globally to HBO Max) is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. It is a proprietary unit of Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming on behalf of Home Box Of ...

Casting

On May 31, 2019, Patrick J. Adams had been cast in the series lead role of

. On June 14, 2019, Jake McDorman and

were cast as Alan Shepard and Gordon Cooper, respectively. On June 21, 2019, Eric Ladin, Patrick Fischler, Nora Zehetner, Eloise Mumford,

, and Josh Cooke joined the cast. On August 19, 2019,

was cast as NASA Spokesman John A. "Shorty" Powers. On November 29, 2019,

was cast as "Mercury 13" astronaut hopeful, Jerrie Cobb.

Reception

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 55% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 7.21/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "''The Right Stuff'' contains some grace notes in its depiction of America's first slate of astronauts, but this tired retread of Tom Wolfe's famed book mostly makes the wrong moves in revitalizing space race history for the modern era." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the series has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Richard Roeper of ''

The Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily Non-profit journalism, nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation am ...

'' praised the show as "a visually striking, well-acted period piece that plays like 'Mad Men: The Flyboys Edition." Writing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', Alan Sepinwall called the show "a dutiful, mostly competent, infrequently lively historical workplace drama" and "almost defiantly generic in every way." ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' reviewer John Anderson described the show as "a perfectly serviceable drama about a rococo period of American history." Lucy Mangan of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' rated the show 4 out of 5 stars and claimed that "''The Right Stuff'' doesn’t reach for the stars, but looks back to the Earth from which the phenomenon of astronauts and space travel, the glamour and the myths grew, along with the appetites they fed, and is all the more interesting for that." Matt Cabral of ''

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

'' rated the series 3 out of 5 stars and called it a "space drama" that is "serviceable but doesn't reach the stars." In Caroline Framke's review for '' Variety'', she criticized the show as "familiar" and said it "never met a space story cliché it didn't embrace with open arms." In a review for ''

The Dispatch ''The Dispatch'' is an American center-right subscription-based online magazine founded by Jonah Goldberg, Stephen F. Hayes, and Toby Stock. Several of ''The Dispatchs staff (including Hayes) are alumni of '' The Weekly Standard'', whi ...

'', Alec Dent criticized the show's choice to leave out

Chuck Yeager Brigadier general (United States), Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in his ...

, saying his absence "embodies the central problem of the show: those behind it don't seem to understand what the right stuff is, at least not well enough to portray it on TV."

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Right Stuff (TV series), The 2020 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings 2020s American drama television series Disney+ original programming American English-language television shows Science docudramas Television series by Warner Horizon Television Television series set in the 1960s Television series based on adaptations Television shows based on non-fiction books Live action television shows based on films Cultural depictions of Wernher von Braun Television series about astronauts Television series based on actual events Project Mercury Television series about NASA Scott Carpenter Gordon Cooper John Glenn Gus Grissom Wally Schirra Alan Shepard Deke Slayton Television shows based on works by Tom Wolfe