Disney+ has ordered a pilot for a brand new series called Spaceship Earth, taking its name and inspiration from the beloved EPCOT attraction housed inside the park’s iconic geodesic sphere. The streamer confirmed the project Thursday, marking the latest attempt by Disney to translate one of its theme park experiences into original scripted programming, this time for the small screen rather than film.
The pilot follows a group of teenagers pulled from different points in Earth’s past and future who are forced to work together after a mission meant to prevent a looming global catastrophe goes wrong, sending them up against a danger as sprawling and mysterious as time itself. Rather than recreating the ride’s slow journey through the history of human communication, the series borrows the attraction’s time travel framing as a jumping off point for an original science fiction adventure.
Jason Fuchs, who currently co-showruns HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry, will showrun Spaceship Earth and executive produce through Five Ten Productions, the company he recently launched with his wife, producer and actor Alixandra Fuchs. Fuchs co-wrote the pilot script alongside Michael Waldron, the head writer behind Marvel’s Loki and the screenwriter of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, who is also attached to the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Waldron will executive produce under his Anomaly Pictures banner.
Lee Toland Krieger, whose directing credits include You, Riverdale and Shadow and Bone, will direct the pilot and executive produce alongside Adam Fishbach, known for producing Love, Victor and The Other Black Girl, and Anomaly Pictures partner Adam Fasullo. Twentieth Television is producing the project, and casting is officially underway, though no names have been attached to the teenage ensemble at the center of the story.
Spaceship Earth has stood at the heart of EPCOT since the park opened in 1982, with the slow moving dark ride carrying guests through the sphere while chronicling humanity’s major leaps in communication, from early cave paintings to the internet. The attraction is currently narrated by Judi Dench and has been updated several times over the decades while keeping its core message that each generation builds on the discoveries of those before it.
Should the pilot move forward to a full series order, Spaceship Earth would become the first Disney Parks attraction ever adapted into a television series, following a long line of theme park inspired features that include the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, both Haunted Mansion films, Jungle Cruise and Tomorrowland. Disney+ has not announced a release timeline, and there is no guarantee yet that the pilot will be picked up to series. The news arrives just over a week before Disney’s D23 Expo, running August 14 through 16 in Anaheim, where the company is expected to reveal more about its upcoming film and television slate. More details via Deadline.
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