Star City: Apple TV+’s For All Mankind Spinoff Is a Soviet-Era Thriller You Shouldn’t Miss

If you loved For All Mankind but always wondered what the other side of the space race looked like, Apple TV+ just answered that question with Star City — and it’s already climbing the streaming charts.

Trailer: Apple TV (YouTube)

A Soviet Perspective on the Space Race

Star City drops you behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War space race — but this time, you’re watching through Soviet eyes. Set in the same alt-history universe as For All Mankind, the series follows cosmonauts, engineers, and intelligence officers as they navigate impossible odds, bureaucratic paranoia, and personal sacrifice in the race for the Moon.

The premise flips everything you thought you knew about the space race on its head. Instead of NASA’s clean-living idealists, you get KGB operatives, broken families, and engineers who can’t trust their own colleagues. It’s darker, more morally gray, and honestly more gripping than most space dramas airing right now.

A Cast That Delivers

Leading the charge is Rhys Ifans as “The Chief Designer” — a composite character inspired by real Soviet rocket engineers like Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko. He’s brilliant, haunted, and constantly one wrong move away from the gulag. Ifans brings a quiet intensity that anchors every scene he’s in.

Anna Maxwell Martin plays Lyudmilla Raskova, and Agnes O’Casey plays Irina Morozova — both delivering performances that feel lived-in rather than performed. The ensemble cast rounds out with Alice Englert, Solly McLeod, Adam Nagaitis, and Ruby Ashbourne Serkis (yes, Andy’s daughter).

The For All Mankind Connection

Here’s where it gets interesting: Star City shares the same alternate history universe as For All Mankind, meaning events that happened in that series’s timeline — the Soviet Union reaching the Moon first, the extended Cold War rivalry — are part of this show’s backstory. You don’t need to have watched For All Mankind to follow along, but if you have, there’s an extra layer of context that enriches the experience.

Apple TV+ has clearly been building a cohesive alt-history franchise, and Star City feels like the missing piece that makes the whole universe feel more complete. Where For All Mankind gave you the hopeful American side, this show delivers the human cost of the same story.

Is It Worth Your Time?

If you’re into spy thrillers, space dramas, or Cold War history — absolutely. The pacing is tight across its 8-episode run, the tension never lets up, and the performances are uniformly excellent. It’s one of those shows that feels like a prestige film split across eight parts.

Apple TV+ continues to build one of the strongest streaming lineups in the game, and Star City is another feather in that cap. The show premiered on May 28, 2026, and all 8 episodes are available now.

Sources: TMDB, Apple TV+, The Verge

Have you started watching Star City yet? What do you think of the Soviet perspective on the space race? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.