The countdown is on for “For All Mankind’s” final launch.
Apple TV has renewed the alt-history astronaut drama starring Joel Kinnaman for a sixth and final season, TVLine has learned. The renewal comes ahead of the show’s Season 5 premiere this Friday, March 27.
“Getting to explore the ‘For All Mankind’ universe over six seasons has been an amazing privilege, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to finish the story the way we’ve always hoped,” Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, who co-created the series with Ronald D. Moore, said in a statement. “We’re incredibly proud of what this series has become, and grateful to Apple TV and Sony Pictures Television for helping us see it through to its final chapter.”
Apple TV head of programming Matt Cherniss added a statement as well: “From being one of the first Apple Originals to launch on Apple TV in 2019, ‘For All Mankind’ has remained an innovative, epic sci-fi series that has enthralled fans season after season. As one of Apple TV’s most enduring and celebrated series, it has delivered time and again because of the extraordinary artistry of visionary storytellers Ron, Matt, and Ben, along with our partners at Sony, and we can’t wait for people to experience how this story comes to its exhilarating conclusion when the final season debuts next year.”
For All Mankind has become one of Apple TV’s longest-running series
Debuting in 2019 on Apple TV, “For All Mankind” tells an alt-history tale of the space race between the Americans and the Russians where the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the moon. Joel Kinnaman stars as astronaut Ed Baldwin, with Cynthy Wu as Ed’s adopted daughter Kelly. The cast also includes Toby Kebbell, Edi Gathegi, Cynthy Wu, Coral Peña, and Wrenn Schmidt, with Mireille Enos (“The Killing”) and Costa Ronin (“The Americans”) joining the cast in Season 5.
The upcoming fifth season “picks up in the 2010s, years since the Goldilocks asteroid heist,” per the official synopsis. “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.”
Apple TV has also ordered a spin-off, “Star City,” which tells the story from the Russian side. It debuts on the streamer Friday, May 29 with the first two episodes. (Get a first look here.) With the Season 6 renewal, “For All Mankind” becomes one of Apple TV’s longest-running original series, along with “Slow Horses,” which was renewed for Season 7 last July.
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