Apple TV Is Officially Launching 'For All Mankind's First Spin-Off This Month

5 days ago 7

Published May 3, 2026, 1:58 PM EDT

Keeley Brooks is a TV Features author at Collider. A lover of film and television since 19-none-of-your-business, she's a voracious consumer who spends the majority of her time watching, exploring, and dissecting content to bring a uniquely voiced, in-depth perspective to her work.

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Get your space gear ready, because come next month, Apple TV is launching its first sci-fi franchise with Star City, an official spin-off of their oldest, most popular sci-fi series, For All Mankind. While the original show reimagines American history in an alternate timeline where the global space race never ended, Star City is poised to change everything with a completely different view of events.

The highly anticipated Apple TV spin-off is co-created by Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert, and Ronald D. Moore – the same team behind the mothership series. Its premise revolves around the Soviet success first depicted in For All Mankind, where the Russians landed the first man and woman on the Moon before the Americans, leading to massive ripple effects throughout NASA. What’s already setting the spin-off apart is the fact that it won’t be a typical slow-burn sci-fi drama; Star City is entering definitive spy thriller territory.

'Star City' Is a Different Look at 'For All Mankind's Reimagined History

For All Mankind begins with Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov's Moon landing in June 1969, almost a full month ahead of the Americans, but what could have happened for that divergence to occur? The simple answer is that Sergei Korolev, the “father” of the Soviet space program, was still alive. Although, in real life, he died in 1966, Star City's premise imagines he survived and was able to complete his life’s work, thereby enabling the USSR to beat the Americans to the Moon.

While Star City will continue to address and explore the 1970s space race, it shifts focus to the Soviet space program, highlighting its intense pressure and secrecy. Unlike For All Mankind’s sweeping, decade-leaping structure, Star City will also be confined to one era. This will allow for further examination of the perilous lives of Iron Curtain cosmonauts and engineers and the high stakes they face, both on the ground and in space.

For All Mankind, which mixes space realism with multi-generational character arcs, tends to feel more like an emotional workplace drama. With Star City, the tone shifts to the thrilling risks taken by cosmonauts who are part of a repressive, authoritarian regime, where surveillance is constant and failure has severe consequences.

'Star City's Cast Is Made Up of Both New and Familiar Characters

The cast of Star City is a massive ensemble in its own right, led by Rhys Ifans as the Soviet Space Program’s Chief Designer. Ifans' track record more than proves he has the gravitas to play an intense authority figure—House of the Dragon, anyone?—and we couldn’t be more excited about his upcoming contribution to the For All Mankind universe. Anna Maxwell Martin (Bleak House) plays Lyudmilla Raskova, the head of the KGB surveillance department, while Adam Nagaitis (The Terror) plays Valya Markelova, an experienced and well-respected cosmonaut, and Ruby Ashbourne Serkis (Shardlake) has been cast as Tanya, Valya's wife, who feels smothered by her life in Star City.

The spin-off also includes younger versions of several characters from For All Mankind, chief among them Sergei Nikulov (Josef Davies), a young engineer at Soviet Ground Control, and Irina Morozova (Agnes O'Casey), a new employee in Star City's surveillance department. Additionally, Star City's cosmonaut, Sasha Polivanov (Solly McLeod), appears to share a connection with Season 5’s Lenya Polivanov (Costa Ronin), the current governor of Happy Valley, but precisely how the two characters are related remains to be seen.

As you ready yourself for the launch of For All Mankind's spin-off, it’s not a bad idea to reacquaint yourself with the events of the mothership series. More importantly, though, you’ll want to abandon any preconceived expectations that the shows will be similar in anything other than their alt-historical setting. Star City is its own story completely, diverging completely from For All Mankind in favor of what looks to be an intense, gripping spy thriller.