Star City brings KGB intrigue to For All Mankind
Star City, a new spinoff from Apple TV’s alt-history series For All Mankind, shifts perspective to the Soviet side of an alternate space race. The original series imagines a timeline where Soviet engineer Sergei Korolev lived beyond 1966, maintaining the USSR’s dominance in space exploration. Historically, Korolev’s death marked a turning point that allowed the United States to ultimately win the Space Race, but in For All Mankind, his continued leadership keeps the competition fierce.
In this alternate timeline, the Soviets land on the Moon first and establish rival lunar bases throughout the 1970s. The competition intensifies further in the 1990s as both superpowers launch competing missions to Mars. Named after Russia’s real cosmonaut training facility, Star City explores these events from behind the Iron Curtain, following Soviet characters and narratives that remained peripheral in the original series.
The spinoff represents Apple TV’s continued expansion of the For All Mankind franchise, deepening the alternate history mythology while offering a fresh perspective on Cold War space competition. By centering Soviet cosmonauts and their experiences, Star City promises to examine how sustained geopolitical rivalry in space exploration might have reshaped the 20th century.