Is For All Mankind getting a season five? Apple TV+ has confirmed its popular alternative history where Russia beat America in the '60s Space Race will indeed be back for more.
What's more, the renewal announcement also confirmed an upcoming For All Mankind spin-off is in the works. Entitled Star City, the show will also be from creators Ronald D Moore, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, and has been billed as a "propulsive paranoid thriller".
The show will delve into the alt-history moment the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the moon, but coming at it from behind the Iron Curtain.
So fans of the show can rest assured we have much more coming, in one way or another. With all that in mind, pull on that spacesuit and grab some popcorn as we venture into the future and run through what's coming our way in a fifth season of For All Mankind.
But be warned – spoilers for season four follow.
For All Mankind season 5 potential release date: When will it air?
A new season of For All Mankind would typically launch around 15-16 months after the previous one, which would position season five for release in early 2025.
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However, the Hollywood strikes of 2023 impacted the show's development, just like they did so many other projects across the industry at large.
Co-creator Ben Nedivi shed some light on how this all affected For All Mankind specifically during a chat with Collider. He said: "It's interesting, because I think the difference this year, because of the writers' strike, we weren't able to... start a room for season five.
"I think this is the first time in the history of the show where the show is premiering without us really starting a room for season five."
This means that a potential season five might not arrive until four to six months later. Let's hope everything stays on track then for a release in the back half of 2025.
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For All Mankind season 5 cast
Assuming nothing changes behind the scenes, fans can expect the following cast members to reprise their roles in season five:
- Joel Kinnaman as Ed Baldwin
- Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison
- Krys Marshall as Danielle Poole
- Cynthy Wu as Kelly Baldwin
- Coral Peña as Aleida Rosales
- Edi Gathegi as Dev Ayesa
- Toby Kebbell as Miles Dale
- Tyner Rushing as Samantha Massey
- Svetlana Efremova as Irina Morozova
- Daniel Stern as Eli Hobson
Saying that, there is a chance that one or more of these cast members could be killed off or dispatched due to the time jump that always takes place between each season. It's happened before!
Plus, new characters will inevitably join the cast too, although no news has been released on that just yet.
For All Mankind season 5 plot: What will happen after the season 4 finale?
We've not had any official announcements on the plot of For All Mankind season five just yet, but we can infer a lot from how season four ended.
Things exploded quite literally at the end when Mike's team and the Helios strikers fought Danielle's NASA team outside the North Korean quarters.
After a gun suddenly emerged, Danielle was shot by a stray bullet, but unlike pretty much every other finale to date, no-one important died. This bait and switch was a very welcome one though, as Danielle did not deserve to be killed off like that. Just like the strikers, we too would have rioted if that had happened.
Still, the impact of this conflict, not to mention how Margo lied to save Aleida from prison, will all play into the 2012 era that season five's going to start off with.
The final moments of the episode already hint at that with a flashforward to Mars, where Dev can be seen exploring a crater before the camera pans out to reveal mining has kicked off on Goldilocks, the asteroid everyone was fighting over all season.
This shift of power in favour of Helios, a private company, will have huge repercussions for characters in America, Russia and the entire world, as the show's timeline continues to shift even further away from our own.
The finale sees another time jump, this time from 2003 to 2012, setting the scene for season five of For All Mankind. Showrunner and executive producer Ben Nedivi said that final image was supposed to convey two things.
"One, that this insane heist actually worked. It paid off," he told TVLine. "They are investing in Mars and investing in the asteroid, which, if that's the case, you have to imagine that the impact of that on Mars would be huge, as well.
"So for us, what's always exciting in pushing forward with the show is imagining where we can go.
"That means not only with the asteroid and the impact that has on Mars, and possibly going to a colony now that is much bigger than the one you see in season four, but even the potential now of going further than Mars.
"That's always been in the back of our minds, that roadmap of the show, and the further we can go with it, the further we can take space travel, as well."
Toby Kebbell, who joined the cast of For All Mankind in season four as former oil rig worker Miles Dale, has shared his hopes for where the next season of the show could go.
However, he's also stressed his awareness that showrunners Nedivi and Wolper like to keep the plot fairly loose, particularly after they changed his character's ending for season four.
He told Vulture: "It can always change, but there's a trust I have in these guys to tell the best story. When they told me these people are the pioneers of Mars, I was like, 'I just hope what you're saying comes true. I hope this is the start of a revolution.' That's what I'm hoping for, personally.
"I hope I'm not spoiling anything and they go, 'Well, you already told what it was, so we're changing it now: You die, in a box, and we don't see it!'"
For All Mankind season 5 trailer: When can I see it?
Unless we jump forward in time like a season of For All Mankind, it's tricky to know when new footage will arrive.
But if the late 2025 release date feels accurate, then a trailer might come in the first half of that year.
For All Mankind is now streaming on Apple TV+.
After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
