For All Mankind season 5 might be coming to a close, but the new spin-off show, Star City, is just getting started. Star City premieres with two episodes on Apple TV on May 29 at 12 a.m. PT/3 a.m. ET.
For All Mankind presents an alternate history of the Space Race, one where the Soviet Union reached the moon first. For All Mankind is told from the American point of view. In Star City, the script is flipped, as the story explores what happened from the perspective of the Soviets.
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Star City tells the Soviet Union’s side of the Space Race
Let’s head to the moon
In the current season of For All Mankind, much of the action takes place on Mars, where about 5,000 humans now live during the 2010s. The Apple TV show begins in 1969, when a Soviet cosmonaut becomes the first man on the moon, causing NASA to push for an American to achieve the same feat. The first season covers the late 1960s and 1970s.
Star City returns to the late 1960s to continue the alternate retelling of the Space Race. However, the show puts the Soviets at the center of the action. The spin-off’s trailer suggests a paranoid thriller more than a traditional sci-fi show. Per Apple’s logline, Star City shows “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.”
Rhys Ifans headlines Star City as the Chief Designer, the key figure behind the success of the Soviet space program. Many fans of House of the Dragon will recognize Ifans, who played Otto Hightower.
Star City’s ensemble includes Anna Maxwell Martin as Lyudmilla Raskova, Agnes O’Casey as Irina Morozova, Alice Englert as Anastasia Belikova, Solly McLeod as Sasha Polivanov, Adam Nagaitis as Valya Markelov, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis as Tanya Markelova, Josef Davies as Sergei Nikulov, and Priya Kansara as Lakshmi.
Star City is created by Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, and Ben Nedivi, the same trio behind For All Mankind.
Speaking of For All Mankind, the season 5 finale airs on May 29. Apple has already renewed the long-running show for a sixth and final season. It’s unknown if Star City will return for a second season.
New episodes of Star City will release every Friday through July 10.
Star City
Release Date
May 29, 2026
Network
Apple TV
Showrunner
Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert
