First Woman: What Do We Know About ITV’s Upcoming ‘Lunar Thriller’?

This upcoming ITV ‘lunar thriller’ is very Black Mirror. But first of all, what on Earth is a ‘lunar thriller’? Well, it seems ITV is bringing a genre we typically only get to see in film (think Ryan Gosling and Andy Weir’s recent Project Hail Mary, or even Weir’s breakout film The Martian) to the small screen in this upcoming six-part drama, with filming underway now in Belfast. (Naturally, with the action split between Earth and the Moon, we can assume sets are involved.)

Starring Andrea Riseborough, Ashley Walters, Jennifer Ehle, Alex Hassell and plenty more, this is one of the more ambitious British television projects we have heard of in a while. Here’s everything we know so far about First Woman.

First Woman: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

First Woman has spawned from the mind of screenwriter George Oakes in what seems to be his first project. He is joined behind the scenes by Lydia Yeoman and Ben Schiffer, who have penned the scripts of this six-part thriller.

And what good scripts they must be with such a stellar cast on board. Academy Award nominee Andrea Riseborough leads the series as Claire Reith, joined by Emmy nominee Ashley Walters as her husband Ben. You’ll know Riseborough from recent hits like The Good Boy and Goodbye June, while Walters has starred in Top Boy and Missing You but reached international acclaim with Netflix’s Adolescence.

Separated by hundreds of thousands of miles as Claire becomes the first woman to step foot on the moon, here’s what will happen.

Ashely Walters as Detective Inspector Bascombe in Adolescence. (Netflix © 2024)

The Plot

There’s a rather optimistic grapple at the centre of First Woman: the UK is in a space race with China. (Naturally, this is being funded independently by billionaire Inesh Vidhani [Shazad Latif].) Once you’ve suspended your disbelief on that front, we’ll come to know Claire (Riseborough), an astronaut and biologist who becomes the first woman to set foot on the moon as part of the UK’s Lunar Moon Base research project.

But then, one long lunar night, she suddenly disappears. Suspicion is cast on her fellow astronauts, as well as the rival Chinese base – the only other presence on the moon.

Hundreds of thousands of miles away on Earth, her husband Ben (Walters) then begins his own investigation into what has happened to his wife. As the crisis at UK Mission Control deepens and Ben clings to the hope that he will eventually be reunited with Claire, UK Space Flight Authority investigator Helen Sadler (Jennifer Ehle) becomes increasingly sceptical of the official narrative and begins to pick apart the secrets within Mission Control.

Flitting between this earth base and the lunar base, we’re told to expect a thrilling race against time, not just with Claire’s life at stake but the entire reputation of the UK’s lunar programme.

Alex Hassell as Rupert Campbell-Black in Rivals. (© Disney)

The Cast

Alongside Riseborough and Walters, there are plenty of familiar faces in the First Woman cast. Not least is Ehle who stars as investigator Helen Sadler, whom you’ll recognise most recently from Contagion and Zero Dark Thirty.

Meanwhile, Rivals star Alex Hassell dons his political hat once again to star as Christopher Scott, the polished, pragmatic and disciplined UK Prime Minister in the First Woman universe. With a centrist political identity, Scott is desperate for Britain to compete on a global stage, but naturally his position becomes increasingly precarious as this missing astronaut crisis deepens.

Joining Riseborough in space are The Tower star Jimmy Akingbola as Dr. Henry Evans and Unchosen star Fra Fee as the bullish Dr. Declan McAllister. On the ground, you’ll also recognise American star Kathryn Gallagher, who stars as former NASA astronaut Lucy Miller, now working for the UK Mission Control. Leading mission control meanwhile is Peter Talbot, played by Ben Miles, who you’ll know from The Crown and Andor.

With ITV recurrently announcing new names, here are all the stars of First Woman we know so far:

• Andrea Riseborough as Claire Reith
• Ashley Walters as Ben Reith
• Jennifer Ehle as Helen Sadler
• Alex Hassell as Christopher Scott
• Jimmy Akingbola as Dr Henry Evans
• Fra Fee as Dr Declan McAllister
• Kathryn Gallagher as Lucy Miller
• Shazad Latif as Inesh Vidhani
• Christian Ochoa Lavernia as Gabriel Ross
• Ben Miles as Peter Talbot

Release Date

No news just yet from ITV on when we can expect First Woman to air. As of May 2026, filming is officially underway in Belfast, especially at Studio Ulster, which is the UK’s largest and most advanced virtual production studio. This is where the lunar landscape and moon base have been created.

The series will be made up of six episodes.