The fifth season of Apple TV+’s For All Mankind jumps ahead to the 2010s. Years after the daring mission to the Goldilocks asteroid – where Mars emerged victorious – the show catches up with its characters as they’ve aged. We see new characters take center stage, like Kelly’s teenage son, Alex, and Miles’ daughter, Lily. The Martian colony, Happy Valley, is doing well, but disagreements with Earth are growing. When a murder occurs on Mars, it threatens to ignite a major conflict.
Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, the creators of the show For All Mankind, recently discussed with ComicBook the increasing tension between Mars and Earth, the challenges of Ed’s aging, and the emergence of a new generation of characters.
Now that the asteroid theft is over, are relations between Earth and Mars better? If there’s still tension, what does the conflict look like now?
Things have quieted down a bit, like putting a lid on something that was about to boil over. After the asteroid was stolen, Earth’s countries realized Mars was getting out of hand and needed to be controlled. They created a peacekeeping force – essentially a police force – to maintain order. While it’s done that, it’s also created underlying tensions that are building as the season progresses.
Ben Nedivi explained that when developing their approach, they looked to the period leading up to the American Revolution. They noted a striking similarity between the travel time and distance from England to America and that between Earth and Mars. He pointed out that historically, controlling populations located so far away has proven difficult.
Ed is getting older. Can you talk about the discussions you had regarding the character’s future and how he’ll be remembered?
We discussed this a lot. Even at 85, Ed still has this incredible drive – a refusal to be sidelined. He’s determined to stay involved and keep doing things, regardless of what others say. He’s more himself than ever, which is funny when you consider people like Buzz Aldrin and William Shatner went to space in their 80s and 90s. It’s not so far-fetched. He’s always going to push to remain active. It was also really interesting to watch him mentor his grandson and try to instill his values, even if those values don’t align with what the grandson wants for his own life.
Someone is murdered on Mars. This story explores how that event impacts the lives of everyone connected to the case.
The murder at the beginning of the season serves as a key starting point. It establishes that Mars isn’t a perfect place – it has crime, and people are working to solve it. This creates a sense of unsettling normalcy, suggesting that such events aren’t rare. While there are a few murders and suicides, everything on the show has a purpose, and this murder sets off a chain of events that will drive the entire season. It also introduces Celia Boyd, a new investigator who will be central to the unfolding story. We wanted to start the season with something fresh and unexpected, and this felt like the perfect way to do that, opening up new possibilities and setting the stage for everything to come.
Besides the murder, what else is driving this season?
This season, the story focuses on two main threads. First, the increasing tension and growing divide between Earth and Mars, as they pursue different goals and hold contrasting beliefs. Second, we follow Kelly Baldwin’s ongoing quest to discover microbial life somewhere within our solar system – a major plotline this year.
You brought up Ed’s grandson, Alex, and it’s interesting how this new generation is now prominent. What did meeting him help you understand? Did it offer a new way of looking at things?
Honestly, the biggest change this year is the introduction of a new generation of characters. This allows us to do two things. First, our show has always followed people throughout their lives, and now we’re expanding that to follow multiple generations – from Ed Baldwin to his daughter Kelly, and now to her child, Alex. This lets us explore not only how things change over time, but also how past traumas can affect future generations, which is what makes our show stand out.
What I find really compelling about this story is the flipped perspective. We wanted to show what life is like for someone who grew up on Mars – for them, it’s just home, not some amazing, distant planet. It’s like imagining growing up in a really special place and then finding it’s just…normal for you. We all find the idea of living on Mars so fascinating and a little scary, but for our character, Alex, Earth is the strange and exciting place. That scene in the first episode, where he’s using VR to experience the ocean, really captures that. He’s not dreaming of Mars, he’s longing for Earth! We were focused on making that shift in perspective feel real – showing what it’s like when Mars isn’t a destination, but simply…home.
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2026-03-27 18:11