Hello Bob! Ahead of its long-awaited return for Season 5, Apple TV’s For All Mankind has been renewed for a sixth and final season. The news also comes ahead of the premiere of Star City, a spin-off series that tells the story of an alternate space race from a Soviet perspective, set for release on May 29.
This news means that For All Mankind can complete the expansive storyline as originally envisioned by creators Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, and Ben Nedivy. This is unusual in a television culture where shows are often canceled quickly. “For All Mankind” launched on November 1, 2019, the same day as Apple TV’s “The Morning Show,” making both series the streamer’s longest-running series.
“It’s been an incredible privilege to explore the world of For All Mankind for six seasons, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to end the story the way we always wanted,” Wolpert and Nedivy said in a joint statement. “We’re incredibly proud of what this series has become and are grateful to Apple TV and Sony Pictures Television for helping us see it through to its final chapter.”
“For All Mankind,” which has won rave reviews and numerous awards for its unique storytelling, explores how human life might have been different had the Soviet Union reached the moon first, exploring an alternative history of the United States, the Space Race, and even Earth. Perhaps a Cold War would have forced the United States to double down and spend more money and resources to build a moon base first. In the process, the Soviet Union and the United States would try to outdo each other, leading to faster advances in technology and perhaps more rapid social changes, such as the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.
“For All Mankind has been one of the first Apple Originals to launch on Apple TV in 2019, and continues to be an innovative, epic sci-fi series that has captivated fans season after season,” Apple TV Head of Programming Matt Chernis said in a statement. “One of Apple TV’s longest-running and most celebrated series, this series has been delivered time and time again thanks to the extraordinary artistry of visionary storytellers Ron, Matt, and Ben and our partners at Sony. We can’t wait for people to experience how this story comes to an exhilarating conclusion when the final season is released next year.”
Season 5 will return with weekly episodes from Friday, March 29 through Friday, May 29, the same days “Star City” premieres. The show moves to the 2010s, and in this timeline, Mars is filled with humans.
Here’s the description for this season: “The intergenerational series begins in the 2010s, many years after 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 deeper into the solar system. But now, as Earth’s nations demand law and order on Mars, friction continues to arise between the Martian population and their former homeland.”
Wolpert told Variety that the final season will allow producers to bring the show into the present day, or rather depict what the 2020s will be like in the world of For All Mankind. “I think our focus from the beginning was that we had no idea how many seasons it would take to get there, and that was we wanted to get to today,” he said. “We wanted to tell the arc of the story from that first fork in 1969 and then to the present day, and find out how different the world we are in today would be if we had continued to seek progress and continued to move forward as a species.”
Nedivy added that the plans for season 6 and the end of the series are very close to what he originally planned with Moore. “Honestly, what’s incredible is how close we are still to the roadmap that Ron and I laid out really early on,” he said. “It’s one thing to get this far and it’s another thing for the initial roadmap to still be our roadmap. This doesn’t mean we haven’t deviated and moved away from certain things or lost people. But we’re still on that map, and it’s been an incredible journey, and I think the ending will be different.”
Season 5 will see Joel Kinnaman, Toby Kebbell, Eddie Gathegi, Cincy Wu, Coral Peña, and Len Schmidt return to the cast, as well as new series regulars Mireille Enos (The Killing), Costa Ronin (The Americans), Sean Kaufman (Bottoms), Ruby Crews (Bottoms), and Ines Asserson (Royal Teen).
“For All Mankind” won an Emmy Award for Interactive Programming and Emerging Media as well as a PGA Innovation Award. He has also been nominated for TCA, Critics Choice, Hugo, Saturn, Art Directors Guild, American Set Decorators Association, and other awards.
Wolpert and Nedivi will serve as showrunners and executive producers alongside Moore and Maril Davis of Tall Ship Productions, as well as Kira Snyder, David Weddle, Bradley Thompson and Seth Edelstein. Sony Pictures Television produces the series.
