April 23, 2026

— Seven years ago, Apple TV dropped a trailer for a new series that in its opening moments showed a spacesuited figure descending a ladder to the lunar surface.

"I take this step for my country, for my people and for the Marxist-Leninist way of life," said the cosmonaut.

That scene, depicting the world's first human to walk on the moon, is now back but not as a retrospective of the first five seasons of the critically-acclaimed alternate space history drama "For All Mankind." Rather, it sets the stage for a spinoff, "Star City" premiering on May 29.

The eight-episode "Star City," created by Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert and Ronald D. Moore — the same team behind its inspiration — picks up again where "For All Mankind" originally veered off our timeline, but now offers some insight into how and why the Soviets prevailed.

"Star City" official trailer. Click to enlarge video in new pop-up window. (Apple TV)

"'Star City' is a propulsive paranoid thriller that takes us back to the key moment in the alt-history retelling of the space race — when the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the moon. But this time, we explore the story from behind the Iron Curtain, showing the lives of the cosmonauts, the engineers and the intelligence officers embedded among them in the Soviet space program, and the risks they all took to propel humankind forward," reads Apple's synopsis of the new show.

The new trailer introduces the cast and shows events that follow the first landing, but for many watching, the plot may still not be clear when the two-minute preview ends. While the exploits of the U.S. space program are well known, the USSR operated largely in the dark, only acknowledging their successes. As such, the internal workings of the Soviet space program is not as well known by the public.

Whereas in "For All Mankind" the story was moved forward by the desire of the U.S. to prevail in the on-going space race, the "Star City" trailer suggests the Soviets are far more consumed, and perhaps thwarted, by how far they believe the U.S. will go to still win.

"I will not have any more deaths on my watch because of your paranoia," says the Chief Designer (Rhys Ifans), the title by which the head of spacecraft and rocket design for the Soviet space program was known, hiding his identity, for fear of his being captured or assassinated.

"Your measure of risk is misguided, comrade," says an unnamed woman.

In addition to Ifans ("House of the Dragon"), "Star City" stars Anna Maxwell Martin ("Motherland") as Lyudmilla, the head of the KGB at the cosmonaut training center from where the series gets its title; Agnes O'Casey ("Black Doves") as Irina, a new member of the surveillance department; Alice Englert ("Bad Behaviour") as Anastasia, a yet-to-fly cosmonaut; Solly McLeod ("House of the Dragon") as Sasha, a reckless cosmonaut; Adam Nagaitis ("Chernobyl") as Valya, a revered veteran cosmonaut; Ruby Ashbourne Serkis ("I, Jack Wright") as Tanya, a cosmonaut's wife; Josef Davies ("Andor") as Sergei, a flight controller in the TsUP (mission control); and Priya Kansara ("Bridgerton") as Lakshmi, a skilled scientist.

"Wolpert and Nedivi serve as showrunners and executive produce alongside Moore and Maril Davis of Tall Ship Productions, as well as Andrew Chambliss and Steve Oster. The show is produced by Sony Pictures Television.

"Star City" debuts globally on Apple TV with two episodes on the same day that season 5 of "For All Mankind" concludes (May 29), followed by one new episode every Friday through July 10.