Everything to know about 'For All Mankind' on Apple TV+
With the new space race epic For All Mankind, Apple TV+ is taking one giant leap into the streaming universe.
Apple’s new streaming service launches on Nov. 1 with nine original series (and will roll out more each month). Among those first offerings is For All Mankind, a drama that takes place in an alternate reality where the USSR beat the United States to put a man on the moon.
Here’s what you need to know about For All Mankind on Apple TV+:
When does For All Mankind premiere?
On Nov. 1, the day that the Apple TV+ streaming service launches. The subscription costs $4.99 a month, though customers who purchase a new Apple device can get a free year.
What’s For All Mankind about?
Apple’s official synopsis says, “What if the space race had never ended? …. Told through the lives of NASA astronauts, engineers and their families, For All Mankind presents an aspirational world where NASA and the space program remained a priority and a focal point of our hopes and dreams.”
In the real version of history, after the successful Apollo 11 mission, NASA gradually began to ramp down the space program.
In this alternate timeline, the Soviet Union succeeds in the first manned moon landing, dubbed “Red Moon. But instead of giving up, NASA ramps up efforts to one-up the Soviets.
Who is in it?
Joel Kinnaman (The Killing) stars as Edward Baldwin, a top NASA astronaut, with Shantel VanSanten as his wife Karen. Michael Dorman and Sarah Jones play another prominent NASA couple.
The Crown actress Jodi Balfour is pilot Ellen Waverly, Wrenn Schmidt is engineer Margo Madison and Eric Ladin is mission control boss Gene Kranz. Also on board are Rebecca Wisocky as Marge Slayton, the wife of the head of the astronaut program, and Arturo Del Puerto as Octavio Rosales, an immigrant looking for a better life for his family.
What else is there to know?
The series was co-created and written by Ronald D. Moore, the mind behind Battlestar Galactica and Outlander. He also wrote for several Star Trek series. So, he knows space and he knows history.
Moore will continue to explore themes developed in his previous work. “We’re starting with how history changes, and as the season develops we’ll jump months — and sometimes years — and you’ll see the ripple effects that occur: We pull out of Vietnam earlier, Nixon goes in hard on the space program,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
“How do things change because of all that? In our history, Ted Kennedy does not go to Chappaquiddick. He cancels the trip to go to Washington, and so Nixon’s team is worried he’s going to run. There’s a lot to explore when you start to consider how life would be different.”
And if viewers get a Mad Men vibe from the show, there’s a reason for that: one of Moore’s first hires was Mad Men production designer Dan Bishop.
Is there a trailer?
Yes, there are several. Watch them here:
