Apple’s alt-history space drama opens with a Soviet boot on the Moon and spends five seasons working through the fallout. For All Mankind dramatizes a timeline where the global space race never ended. Our score: 6.5 of 10.
Trailer, via Apple TV.
Alexei Leonov Lands First
The premise is the hook. In this timeline, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first human to land on the Moon in 1969. That outcome devastates morale at NASA but also catalyzes a U.S. effort to catch up.
Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi created the series for Apple TV. Moore has explained where the divergence starts. “Sergei Korolev was the father of the Soviet space program; in our reality, he died during an operation in Moscow (in 1966) … And after that point, their Moon program really never pulled together…. Our point of divergence was that Korolev lives, … and he made their Moon landing happen.”
One surviving man, one changed decade.
Nixon’s Women and the Race That Never Ended
The Soviet Union emphasizes equality by including a woman in subsequent landings. The United States is forced to match pace, equally training women and ethnic minorities who were largely excluded from the initial decades of U.S. space exploration. The show calls this group “Nixon’s Women.”
The alternate timeline produces a wide range of dramatic civilian effects: early civil rights, electric vehicles, civilian fusion power, controlled CO2 production and no climate crisis. Each season takes place about a decade later — season two in the 1980s, season three in the 1990s, season four in the 2000s, season five in the 2010s.
The series stars an ensemble cast:
- Joel Kinnaman as Edward “Ed” Baldwin, one of NASA’s top astronauts
- Michael Dorman as Gordon “Gordo” Stevens, an astronaut
- Sarah Jones as Tracy Stevens, who later becomes an astronaut as one of “Nixon’s Women”
- Shantel VanSanten as Karen Baldwin, who later becomes head of Helios Aerospace
- Jodi Balfour as Ellen Wilson, later NASA Administrator, a U.S. senator and President
- Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison, a NASA engineer mentored by Wernher von Braun
- Sonya Walger as Molly Cobb, an astronaut based on Jerrie Cobb
- Krys Marshall as Danielle Poole, another of “Nixon’s Women”
- Cynthy Wu as Kelly Baldwin, a scientist and Ed and Karen’s adopted daughter
- Coral Peña as Aleida Rosales, who later gets mentored by Margo before becoming a NASA engineer herself
- Edi Gathegi as Dev Ayesa
The series features historical figures, played by actors or appearing through archival footage, including astronauts and NASA officials as well as American presidents and other politicians.
The Cast Grows Every Season
For All Mankind premiered on November 1, 2019. The source lists five seasons and 50 episodes, with the last airing May 28, 2026. Its genres are drama, sci-fi and fantasy, and war and politics.
The casting history tracks how the show changed shape. In August 2018, Kinnaman, Dorman, Jones, VanSanten and Schmidt were announced in main roles, with Eric Ladin, Arturo Del Puerto and Rebecca Wisocky in recurring parts. Balfour was cast as a series regular that October.
In November 2020, Wu, Peña and Casey W. Johnson were cast in main roles for season two. Gathegi joined in the third season. Toby Kebbell, Tyner Rushing, Svetlana Efremova and Daniel Stern joined in the fourth. Mireille Enos, Costa Ronin, Sean Kaufman, Ruby Cruz and Ines Asserson joined in the fifth.
The fifth season’s cast includes Kebbell as Miles Dale, Enos as Celia Boyd, Gathegi as Dev Ayesa, Wu as Kelly Baldwin, Peña as Aleida Rosales, Ronin as Leonid Polivanov, Kaufman as Alex Poletov Baldwin, Cruz as Lily Dale and Asserson as Avery “AJ” Jarrett.
Season Two and the Seven-Season Plan
Season two was critically acclaimed and was nominated for the TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama.
In 2023, the writers said that, from the beginning, they had discussed that their goal was that there would be “about seven seasons.” The series ran five.
The title is inspired by the lunar plaque left on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 11, which reads, in part, “We Came in Peace for All Mankind.”
What the Five Seasons Add Up To
Ranked by what the record actually supports:
- Season two — critically acclaimed, TCA-nominated, the show’s strongest documented season
- Season one — the Leonov divergence and the forced opening of NASA’s ranks
- Season three — Gathegi joins the main cast, the 1990s setting
- Season four — the 2000s, a large new cast
- Season five — the 2010s, the final listed season
The published critical score lands at 6.5 of 10, with a Metacritic mark of 65 out of 100.
That split is the honest read. The premise is one of the sharpest on television: a country shamed into competition suddenly finds room for people it had previously excluded, and the show follows that idea through decades of consequences. The casting record shows the cost. Every season adds names, and the later seasons carry more of them than the early run had to. Whether that breadth paid off is the argument the score is really about.
The title comes from the Apollo 11 plaque. The show takes the phrase and tests it against a race that never ended. That is the promise the series made. Five seasons is what it has to show for it.
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