Entertainment
‘For All Mankind’ Creators Reveal Why Apple TV’s Sleeper Hit Series Is Ending with Season 6 [Exclusive]
The news that For All Mankind is ending with Season 6 is a little bittersweet, but the people behind the show are making it clear that this is not some rushed last-minute wrap-up. Apple TV officially renewed the acclaimed space drama for a sixth and final season ahead of Season 5’s March 27 premiere, and according to creators Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert, this ending is actually very much in line with the plan they have been working toward from the beginning.
Speaking with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Nedivi pushed back on the long-running idea that the show had some fixed seven-season blueprint.
“To correct the record, it was never seven seasons. We’d always said it’d be ‘like six or seven.’ Honestly, the goal was always, from the beginning, getting us to the present. As we’ve told you many times, we love the idea of starting from this point of divergence and ending the show in the present day to show how different the world could have been. We realized as we’ve been working on the show and getting closer and closer to that point in terms of the time jumps, in terms of where we find ourselves in Season 5 in the end, it felt like we only needed one more season to complete that story and to complete the roadmap that Ron [Moore], Matt, and I had created in the very beginning.”
That really sounds like the key point here. For All Mankind is not ending because it ran out of road. It is ending because the creators believe they have now reached the point they were always aiming for.
Wolpert also made it clear that the Season 6 renewal came out of the team seeing the shape of the ending more clearly while putting Season 5 together. “Basically. That was almost verbatim our email,” he joked when asked if they went to Apple with a pitch for one more season. He then explained, “No, it was a little more involved than that. But yes, it was basically like we talked about. After we had finished shooting Season 5 and were editing, and seeing that story play out, we started talking about what a Season 6 might be, and we felt like we came up with a great concept to bring the whole series to a close.”
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Did Apple Cancel ‘For All Mankind’?
Just as importantly, Wolpert said Apple and Sony were fully behind it: “Apple was nothing but supportive, as well as Sony. They’ve just been great partners throughout this whole show, honestly. The fact that such a unique show as this has been supported by them in the way it has is just a testament to them as creative partners.”
That lines up with Apple’s own announcement, which confirmed not only the final season renewal but also that the For All Mankind universe is continuing with the spin-off Star City, debuting on May 29. Nedivi also stressed that it is still early days on the final season.
“We don’t know that yet. We just started. We’re just starting to work on it,” he said when asked if Season 6 would also run 10 episodes, before adding,
“But the plan is we’re doing Season 6, we’ve got Star City in post right now, coming out right after Season 5, which is also crazy, and tells you the investment that both Sony and Apple have made in the show.”
Wolpert then noted that while they are closer to filming than people might think, that does not mean everything has been fully figured out yet.
Created by Ronald D. Moore, Wolpert, and Nedivi, For All Mankind has been one of Apple’s flagship series since 2019. Season 5 picks up in the 2010s on Mars, with returning cast members including Joel Kinnaman, Toby Kebbell, Edi Gathegi, Cynthy Wu, Coral Peña, and Wrenn Schmidt, alongside new additions including Mireille Enos, Costa Ronin, Sean Kaufman, Ruby Cruz, and Ines Asserson.
There is obviously some sadness in hearing that one of Apple’s best shows is coming to an end. But if the creators are being honest, this is not really a cancellation story. It is a finish-line story. And in television, that is a much rarer thing.
For All Mankind Season 5 returns to Apple TV on March 27. Look for more with creators Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert soon.
- Release Date
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November 1, 2019
- Network
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Apple TV
- Directors
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Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, Andrew Stanton, Meera Menon, Dan Liu, Allen Coulter, Craig Zisk, Dennie Gordon, John Dahl, Lukas Ettlin, Wendey Stanzler, Seth Gordon, Sylvain White, Michael Morris, Maja Vrvilo, Sarah Boyd
- Writers
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Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivi, Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, Nichole Beattie, Joe Menosky
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