‘The Right Stuff’ canceled by Disney + after one season, purchased by WBTV – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Disney + chose not to order a second season of space racing series The right thing. The period drama of Mercury 7, starring Patrick J. Adams and Jake McDorman, originated at National Geographic before being released as the original Disney + last October. It is the first cancellation of the series with Disney + script.

Warner Bros. Television, the studio behind The right thing, is shopping for other stores, with WarnerMedia’s brothers, TNT and HBO Max, considered potential logical targets. I heard that the cast options expire tomorrow, and WBTV has asked for a two-week extension while efforts to find a new home continue.

There is a strong incentive for WBTV and the parent company WarnerMedia to try to keep The right thing going – in November, the series, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, received $ 13.7 million to move from Florida to California in the second season, the fourth largest relocation incentive ever granted by the CFC program.

Disney +’s decision not to proceed with a second season of The right thing, adapted from Tom Wolfe’s best-selling nonfiction account of the early days of the United States space program, came after lengthy discussions with WBTV. I heard that they looked at different ideas for continuing the series, including a second season focused on a new mission from the 1980s, probably with a new cast.

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The right thing, which is believed to have had a modest performance for Disney +, which did not reach Nielsen’s top 10 streaming ratings, marked the first original series with Nat Geo script for Disney +. It was Disney +’s second original drama series after The Mandalorian and provided the SVOD platform with an original high-tech script series in the fall, when streamers felt the effects of the coronavirus-related production stoppage that drained the pipeline of original content.

Set in 1959, the episode of eight The right thing examines what would become America’s first reality show, as ambitious astronauts and their families would become instant celebrities in a competition that could kill them or make them immortal. The two men at the center of the story are Major John Glenn (Adams), a revered test pilot and family man committed to unshakable principles, and Commanding Lieutenant Alan Shepard (McDorman), one of the best test pilots in Navy history .

The rest of the Mercury Seven includes Lieutenant Gordon Cooper (Colin O’Donoghue), Wally Schirra (Aaron Staton), Scott Carpenter (James Lafferty), Deke Slayton (Micah Stock) and Gus Grissom (Michael Trotter).

The right thingThe cast also includes Nora Zehetner, Eloise Mumford and Shannon Lucio, Patrick Fischler, Eric Ladin, Danny Strong and Josh Cooke.

DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson are executive producers, along with showrunner Mark Lafferty. Chris Long directed and executive produced the first episode. Will Staples, Howard Korder and Danny Strong are also executive producers. Thelma Schoonmaker is a consulting producer. Michael Hampton led this project on behalf of the Appian Way and is a co-producer.