The slightly over two year wait behind For All Mankind’s fifth season seems routine when you think about major streaming dramas. However, in Apple TV’s alternate history universe, we’ve jumped roughly a decade into the far flung future of 2012! Whether you’re going by the time that’s passed in our world or theirs, the wait appears to have been worth it – thanks to the arrival of a spin-off series that couldn’t have been more perfectly timed.

Mars Is About To Get A Bit Rebellious In For All Mankind Season 5

Starting with the business at hand, Apple TV recently issued two press releases pertaining to For All Mankind’s future. The first of which came with a trailer, some dangerous looking key art, and the knowledge of season 5’s premiere date. So if you’re anxious to know when you’ll be returning to Happy Valley, mark down March 27th on your calendar!

Of course, you’ll probably want to wait to do that, as this reel of new footage has been provided, for your viewing enjoyment:

Newcomers stumbling upon this look into season 5 only need to know that For All Mankind’s main thrust is basically an alternate version of the Space Race. With Russia beating the United States to the Moon in the ‘60s, the international community achieves all sorts of milestones, and surmounts many struggles in the process – with humanity now operating a colony on Mars. 

This is where the dyed in the wool fans will want to pay attention though. As you can read in the synopsis provided for this latest 10-episode run, Happy Valley isn’t going to stay happy for long: 

Season five of “For All Mankind” picks up in the 2010s, years since the Goldilocks asteroid heist. Happy Valley has grown into a thriving colony with thousands of residents and a base for new missions that will take us even further into the solar system. But with the nations of Earth now demanding law and order on the Red Planet, friction continues to build between the people who live on Mars and their former home.

These bold new steps will also see returning cast members like Joel Kinnaman, Toby Kebbell, and Edi Gathegi all being on the front lines of Mars’ quest for independence. And as if that wasn’t enough alternate history sci-fi excitement for you, For All Mankind’s spin-off series has just gotten a very promising update.

A concerned Rhys Ifans stands in an empty auditorium in Star City, S1 E1.

Star City, For All Mankind’s Spin-Off, Will Premiere Just As Season 5 Ends

What’s better than the latest season of your favorite Apple TV sci-fi series? Try being able to jump into another corner of that very story sooner than you’d imagine! That’s exactly what’s happening with Star City, as the eight-episode series takes us back to ‘60s, starting on May 29th. 

Debuting with its first two installments just as For All Mankind Season 5 is taking its final bow, the project

Star City is a propulsive paranoid thriller that takes us back to the key moment in the alt-history retelling of the space race – when the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the moon. But this time, we explore the story from behind the Iron Curtain, showing the lives of the cosmonauts, the engineers, and the intelligence officers embedded among them in the Soviet space program, and the risks they all took to propel humankind forward.

Star City’s cast boasts esteemed actors like House of the Dragon vets Rhys Ifans and Solly McLeod, as well as Anna Maxwell Martin and Agnes O’Casey; among others. As the events of Mars and Earth’s upcoming skirmish unfold, it’ll probably be easier to determine just why we’ll be cutting back to that fateful moon landing. In any case, getting double the action in For All Mankind‘s history books is certainly a treat; and could keep the boosters lit on this franchise in-between seasons.

The next era in For All Mankind begins with Season 5’s premiere, on March 27th; with its finale arriving on May 29th – the launch date for Star City. Those episodes will eventually stream on the same home for the first four seasons of the mothership series, on the Apple TV platform. Last, but not least, for updates on all things new and exciting in the world of pop culture, keep your browser tuned to THS’ TV News archives to stay in the loop. 

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