Apple’s New Sci-Fi Series With Near-Perfect RT Score Is a Surprising First (& Begins a New Trend)

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The streaming market was already very competitive when Disney and Apple entered the scene. Both Disney+ and Apple TV+ launched in November 2019, and have since overcome significant hurdles. Disney+ quickly benefited from being the only place to stream popular franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar—something Apple TV+ didn’t have. Instead, Apple had to build a reputation through original shows and movies (along with some familiar titles like Peanuts) to compete with established services like Netflix.

Seven years after Apple launched its TV+ service, it’s become clear that their strategy is paying off. They’ve succeeded by giving shows time to build an audience instead of quickly cancelling them, and by focusing heavily on science fiction content. A prime example is For All Mankind, their alternate history sci-fi series, which just finished its fifth season. It’s now officially Apple TV’s first major franchise, with the recent release of its spinoff, Star City. Surprisingly, Star City is not only Apple TV’s first spinoff ever – and it’s receiving almost perfect reviews – but it signals that more spinoffs are on the way.

Star City Is Apple TV’s First Spinoff (And Not the Last)

As a huge movie and TV fan, I was immediately hooked by the premise of ‘For All Mankind’. It started with a fascinating ‘what if?’ – what if the Soviets had won the space race and landed on the moon first? Over the last five seasons, the show has really explored that idea, creating this incredibly detailed alternate history. It’s a grand, sweeping story that feels surprisingly hopeful, and what I especially love is how grounded in real science it is – they really think about how things could have been different. Though, it’s mostly been told through the eyes of the Americans working to stay ahead in that race to the stars.

As a huge fan of For All Mankind, I was immediately intrigued by Star City. It’s a brilliant move to revisit the late ’60s space race, but from the Soviet perspective! We already know from For All Mankind that the Soviets landed on the moon first, but Star City dives into all the mysteries hidden behind the Iron Curtain – what was really going on inside the Soviet space program, and within the secretive ‘Star City’ itself? It’s a fascinating flip of the script and promises to answer questions we never even knew we had.

I’m really enjoying Star City – it feels like exactly the kind of spin-off the main show needed. It’s expanding the universe in ways the original just couldn’t, and I love how it’s changed things up. It started as straight sci-fi, but now it’s got this thrilling, suspenseful edge to it. Plus, it’s clearly doing well – almost everyone loves it, with a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it’s one of Apple TV’s most popular shows!

After seven years, Apple TV+ has officially launched its first spinoff series with Star City, and more are on the way. The streamer has already started developing a prequel spinoff to Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which, like Star City, will be set during the Cold War and expand on the story of the MonsterVerse. Another popular Apple TV+ show, the sci-fi thriller Severance, is also planned to get spinoffs, with executive producer Ben Stiller revealing they have two distinct ideas in development.

Netflix, on the other hand, quickly creates spin-offs of its popular shows and movies. After the massive success of Squid Game’s first season, they renewed it for two more seasons and even made a reality TV spin-off – a real-life version of the show. Other popular Netflix titles have also received the spin-off treatment, like Stranger Things (with the animated Tales From ’85 series), The Witcher (a prequel called Blood Origin and two animated films), and Bridgerton (a prequel focused on a young Queen Charlotte). And that’s not even considering all the international versions of their reality shows, such as Love Is Blind, Too Hot to Handle, and The Circle.

The information above shows that each streaming service handles spinoffs differently, but Apple’s strategy seems particularly effective. Instead of simply relying on a popular title to attract viewers, Apple focuses on expanding shows that already have a built-in audience, telling new stories that fit within the original world. This ‘story first’ approach is proving successful for them.

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2026-06-06 18:40