The scale of this alternate history spaceflight series is immense. Since its 2019 debut, the series has mapped out a timeline where the USSR reached the Moon before the US in 1969, then traced the ripple effects of that pivotal event. From an alternate 1980s with a functioning Moonbase to a 1990s Mars landing, and now, with Season 5, a major development on the horizon, the show is both bold and intellectually stimulating. However, the For All Mankind universe is now expanding in a new direction: a new series will examine this timeline’s events from the Soviet viewpoint, and it will premiere shortly after its parent series’ upcoming new season.
Star City is scheduled to debut this year, in 2026, immediately following the conclusion of. Here’s what you need to know about this ambitious new series, covering its cast, tone, release date, and place within the For All Mankind timeline.
What is Star City?
Star City draws its name from a real location in the USSR where Roscosmos trains cosmonauts for space missions. For All Mankind has already featured its fictionalized version of Star City on multiple occasions, particularly in Season 2, when NASA astronaut Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall) travels there as part of a joint US-USSR mission. Star City also plays a key role in the espionage plots involving Margo (Wrenn Schmidt), Sergei (Piotr Adamczyk), and former KGB leader Irina Morozova (Svetlana Efremova), who first appeared in Season 4.
The new series will revisit the 1960s to explore the Soviet perspective on the foundational events that shaped For All Mankind. Apple has described the show as a “paranoid thriller.”
What is the Star City timeline?
Per Apple TV, the new series will delve into the events preceding For All Mankind Season 1. While the show was initially announced, Apple’s latest press release provides far more details, revealing that the new series “transports us back to the critical moment in this alternate-history retelling of the space race — when the Soviet Union became the first nation to land a man on the moon. This time, however, we experience the story from behind the Iron Curtain, showcasing the lives of cosmonauts, engineers, and intelligence officers embedded within the Soviet space program, along with the risks they all took to advance humanity.”
This suggests Star City will be set before 1969, building up to that pivotal moment, which effectively resolves a small mystery within the For All Mankind timeline. In real history, the USSR lacked the technology to land on the Moon. But in this timeline, we’ll now see how that achievement became feasible. In other words, Star City is addressing a key sci-fi question that underpins the rest of the For All Mankind timeline: What did the hypothetical Soviet Moon mission actually entail?
Who is in the cast of Star City?
While cameos from For All Mankind cast members are possible, it’s currently unclear which characters (if any) will cross over. Some characters are guaranteed to appear. In the FaMk timeline, the first man on the Moon was Alexei Leonov — a real historical figure who, in our world, was the first human to perform a spacewalk. Thus, Leonov will definitely feature in Star City. Additionally, For All Mankind Season 1 introduced Anastasia Belikova, a fictional character who was the first woman on the Moon in this timeline. We can therefore expect to see a version of her in the new series.
Here’s the confirmed cast, according to Apple’s official press release.
- Rhys Ifans
- Anna Maxwell Martin
- Agnes O’Casey
- Alice Englert
- Solly McLeod
- Adam Nagaitis
- Ruby Ashbourne Serkis
- Josef Davies
- Priya Kansara
Star City Release Date
Star City will premiere on Apple TV with a two-episode launch on Friday, May 29, 2026. This means the series will debut on the same day as the For All Mankind Season 5 finale. Star City will consist of eight episodes, with the final installment streaming on July 10, 2026.