Art imitates life in the For All Mankind season 3 trailer, which features a billionaire elbowing his way into space exploration, turning what looked like a competition between NASA and the Russian cosmonaut program into a three-way race to Mars.
From the beginning, the Apple TV Plus space drama (created by Ronald D. Moore, Ben Nedivi, and Matt Wolpert) has mapped out an alternate history: What if NASA astronauts weren’t the first humans on the moon? What kind of technological — and social — change might the continuation of the Cold War space race inspire? Season 1 was concerned with the business (and politics) of lunar exploration. But in the superb second season, the narrative began to center more squarely on characters like Ellen Wilson (Jodi Balfour), Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall), and Aleida Rosales (Coral Peña) — women who represent For All Mankind’s vision of the future (which is, in our timeline, actually the past).
For its highly anticipated third season, FAM journeys to Mars armed with Soundgarden, some dazzling visual effects, and a spirit of collaboration (at first, anyway). The rich guy who arrives to “disrupt” things is Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi of The Harder They Fall and X-Men: First Class), who’s described as a “charismatic visionary with his sights set on the stars” in the season 3 press release. But does Dev really want to level the playing field for hard working American astronauts? Or does he see Mars more as an opportunity to expand his corporate empire? And what role do veteran NASA fighter-jocks-turned-bureaucrats like Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) and Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger) have left to play in this decade-spanning narrative? We’ll find out more when For All Mankind season 3 premieres on Apple TV Plus on June 10.