Apple TV bets on ideas, whether original or adapted. The streamer has seen significant success with book-to-screen adaptations of shows like Silo and Foundation, while some of their biggest shows are original ideas like Severance or Pluribus. And even outside sci-fi, Apple TV’s strong slate of shows like Your Friends & Neighbors and Widow’s Bay prove that with the right idea and execution, something entertaining can emerge. Now, the streamer is betting on spin-offs, and the first arrives in less than two days.
This new show is not like your regular spin-off that focuses on a favorite character or takes the premise to a new location. It takes events explored in the flagship series and narrows its focus to expand on details that have never been explored before. The series does not seek to rewrite established history, even though it must show the evolution of characters whom viewers have met before. That show is Star City, the new spin-off of Apple TV’s longest-running sci-fi series, For All Mankind.
Events in the 2018 series explored the heated moon race between the Americans and the Soviets, which the Soviets win. Future seasons dealt with even more ambitious undertakings. However, viewers glimpsed what it took for the Soviet cosmonauts to achieve that major feat. In Star City, the full picture unfolds as the show pulls back the iron curtain to reveal the innovation, sacrifice, and struggles endured by many people under an authoritarian regime bent on winning at all costs.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
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🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
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01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
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02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
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03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
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04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
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05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
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06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
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07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
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08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
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Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
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The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
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You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
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You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
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You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
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Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
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You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
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Who Is Behind ‘Star City?’
The series was created by the masterminds behind For All Mankind — Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert, and Ronald D. Moore. The “propulsive paranoid thriller” blends the daunting science of launching mankind to the stars with the scrutiny of a ruthless, controlling regime. House of the Dragon star Rhys Ifans leaves the Iron Throne behind for the Iron Curtain as the chief architect of the Soviet Space Program. Fans will also meet some iconic characters from For All Mankind. Before she became a cold, calculating force, Irina Morozova, played by Agnes O’Casey, was just a secretary for the regime’s spy program. Meanwhile, Sergei Nikulov, played by Josef Davies, was still ironing out the kinks of his genius before his awe-inspiring inventions. Viewers will also meet Alice Englehart as Anastasia Belikova, the first woman on the moon. And to make sure everyone sticks to their assigned roles, Anna Maxwell Martin plays the cold and ruthless Lyudmilla Raskova, a KGB agent from whom Irina learns the least humane parts of her job.
The first two episodes of Star City premiere on Friday, May 29. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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