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Star City Debuts as a Dark, Soviet‑Focused For All Mankind Spinoff

Early reviews praise a darker spy‑thriller tone that reframes the franchise by returning to the Soviet 1969.

Overview

  • The first two episodes of Star City premiered on Apple TV on Friday, May 29, 2026, and the eight‑episode season will continue with new episodes each Friday through July.
  • Critics have broadly praised the series for strong performances and a shift from hopeful sci‑fi to a paranoid Cold War thriller focused on KGB surveillance and state secrecy.
  • Rhys Ifans stars as the unnamed 'Chief Designer' and Anna Maxwell Martin plays KGB head Lyudmilla Raskova in an ensemble that includes Agnes O'Casey, Alice Englert, Josef Davies and others.
  • The show explicitly links to For All Mankind by recasting younger versions of established Soviet characters while remaining accessible to newcomers who have not seen the parent series.
  • Fans and outlets are speculating that the Chief Designer may echo real‑life engineer Sergei Korolev but that identification has not been confirmed by the creators or Apple.