It’s 1995: the glasses are chunky, the Twin Towers loom in the background, and man is preparing its first mission to Mars.
That’s where we’re up to in the alternate history of For All Mankind, the Apple TV+ series positing a past where the U.S.S.R. made it to the moon before NASA. Season three of For All Mankind will drop on June 10 for Apple TV+ subscribers, and it’s headed to a bold red new dot in the solar system.
Joel Kinnaman continues to star as fictional astronaut Edward Baldwin, his latest exploits soundtracked by Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” in the trailer below. The last shot of season two promised us a 1995 mission to Mars, and it looks like we’re finally able to see what it looks like for man to walk on the fourth planet from the sun…but will it be an American man?? That’s the most important question.
“We’re talking about discovering life on another planet”, Cynthy Wu says breathlessly. “That’ll change our concept of who we are, where we’re going…” But that still doesn’t seem important to the space-racing suits, who are still most concerned with who gets to the new planet first. Patience, lads!
Back when season one first aired, it was one of the few thrilling, prestige offerings on Apple TV+. Luke Buckmaster found promise in the series’ refusal to show the dark consequences of meddling with time and space: “For All Mankind seems to go the other way, exploring the potential benefits of a history divergent to our own. This is compelling not because it is optimistic, but rather because the series so far presents a fairly cynical view of American exceptionalism.”
Of course, that was back before the exciting second season and this even more exploratory new one. Who knows what interplanetary accomplishments the characters could get up to by the time they reach 2022 in their own timeline? Let’s see if Apple’s galactic budget stretches that far into the future…
