Apple TV+ has left fans waiting to see if For All Mankind Season 5 will ever be released.
Following a world where the space race of the mid-20th century never ended, the streaming sci-fi drama has proven to be quite the hit. It has averaged a whopping 93% Tomatometer rating across its first four seasons on Rotten Tomatoes, with Seasons 2 and 4 earning a near-unseen 100%.
Despite the critical acclaim, a fifth season has not yet been announced at Apple, and fans are eager to know if the show will continue or if Season 4 marked the end of this space-faring journey.
When Could For All Mankind Season 5 Release?
While the official greenlight has not yet been given for For All Mankind Season 5, one can assume an eventual release is inevitable.
According to series co-creator Matt Wolpert, the For All Mankind creative team has a planned story that lasts "seven seasons" (via Den of Geek):
"When we were first breaking the series, even before season one, we talked about this overarching story that takes about seven seasons.That’s our goal."
Season 4 ended in January 2024, so a Season 5 order could come in the next few months.
If the series were to get rubberstamped by Apple, production could begin as soon as this summer.
Filming for the third season went from February to September 2021, before being released on the streamer nine months later on June 10, 2022.
Season 4 was a similar story, filming from August 2022 to January 2023, and then was released ten months later in November 2023.
So, if filming were to start this summer, lasting until sometime late this year, fans could expect a Season 5 release in late 2025 at the earliest. However, that is no guarantee with no Season 5 announcement at the time of writing.
For All Mankind Season 5's Potential Cast
One would assume with the introduction For All Mankind Season 5, much of the series' primary cast would come along for the ride.
However, that is not necessarily the case. So far, the series has had characters come and go, with some of the biggest names from Seasons 1 and 2 no longer a part of the ongoing story.
In a conversation with TVLine co-creators Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi addressed their strategy when devising who will make it to the next season of the series.
Nedivi posited, "The rule has been" that "we feel there’s no more story to tell" for a particular character, then "it’s time to move on:"
"At this point, we don’t want to say anything, honestly. Until a Season 5 [is ordered], until we’re able to sit in a room and really discuss what we want to do with a Season 5, we don’t like to commit to anything at this stage. So I would leave that open. … In general, the rule has been, for Matt and I at least, if we feel there’s no more story to tell with [a] character, and by story, I mean good, meaty story, then that’s usually the sign that it’s time to move on."
Specifically addressing the future of Wrenn Schmidt's Margo Madison (who has been a part of the streaming series since the beginning), Wolpert said, her story in season 4 had some "nice closure to it," but "You can never count her out:"
"There’s definitely an element of seeing her being arrested and let out of [the space center] for the last time that has a nice closure to it, and a lot of the beginnings of Margo’s story in the first season, you can see the echoes of those in the end of Season 4. But who knows what the future might hold for prison-bound Margo Madison. You can never count her out."
Wolpert added, explaining what could happen to Schmidt's prison-bound NASA engineer, "Prison is not that safe a place," so she might not make it out:
"It’s definitely a possibility. Prison is not that safe a place, though. So you never know. [Laughs]"
One character very likely to return following the time jump that ended Season 4 is Edi Gathegi's Dev Ayesa. The founder of Helios Aerospace was the only major character seen at the end of For All Mankind's Season 4 finale, making his return highly likely should Apple TV+ go ahead with Season 5.
Below are a few other names fans can expect to pop back up in a potential For All Mankind Season 5, but given the time jump that ended Season 4, many of their fates remain unclear:
- Krys Marshall - Danielle Poole
- Cynthy Wu - Kelly Baldwin
- Coral Peña - Aleida Rosales
- Toby Kebbell - Miles Dale
- Tyner Rushing - Samantha Massey
- Daniel Stern - Eli Hobson
[ Full Cast of For All Mankind Season 4: Every Main Actor & Character In New Apple TV Episodes ]
What Could Happen in For All Mankind Season 5?
Plot specific for For All Mankind Season 5 remains unknown, but the series' creative team has addressed where they potentially see the series going forward.
In a conversation with Variety co-creators Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi addressed the time jump seen at the end of Season 4, explaining when skipping to 2012 (from 2003) they did not "want to go too far" into the future:
"It is funny, because it is a lot of going by gut on one level and feeling how far of a time jump makes sense for what we might need to do to advance technology and society. But on the other side, it is about how much we can age our actors. We don’t want to go too far because that would be hard to believe!"
Analyzing what could happen in Season 5, the pair said the asteroid mining station will "definitely play a role in Season 5" along with Dev Ayesa's "vision of what the space program could be:"
"Dev felt like the right character, because from the beginning of his introduction on the show, he has had this vision of what the space program could be, and specifically what life on Mars could be. He’s starting to see his vision come to fruition at the end of this season, so it felt like both showing him be content with what’s done to this point, and still looking to the future of what’s next. In terms of the asteroid, it is mining equipment you see, but let’s just say it will definitely play a role in Season 5 in a way we can’t quite say yet. But we are starting to think about that now."
Nedivi added, pointing to Dev's "vision was a self-sustaining colony on Mars" and how going forward, the mission to colonize the red planet is the goal:
"The other thing to take from that final shot is that Dev’s vision was a self-sustaining colony on Mars, and that asteroid is key to that. The idea that he has achieved this goal of keeping it in Mars orbit means there is a future for Mars, and that does wink in a big way to where we are going with the show and the investment in the future of Mars."
For All Mankind is streaming now on Apple TV+.
