For All Mankind season 5 came to a dramatic close on May 29, delivering the mix of emotional drama, action, and scientific discovery the show is known for. But as always, showrunners Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, and Ben Nedivi have their eyes on the future, with the finale including another big time jump. Fans of the ambitious sci-fi show won’t have to wait long to spend more time in its alt-history world. Here’s everything we know about For All Mankind season 6, from possible plot details to a rough guess at the release date.
[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for For All Mankind season 5]
Is For All Mankind season 6 confirmed?
Yes, Apple renewed For All Mankind for a sixth and final season in March ahead of the season 5 premiere. That makes it the streaming service’s longest-running sci-fi series.
“Getting to explore the For All Mankind universe over six seasons has been an amazing privilege, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to finish the story the way we’ve always hoped,” Wolpert and Nedivi said in a joint statement.
What is the plot of For All Mankind season 6?
For All Mankind season 5 ended with a traditional music cue signaling a time jump – this time The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” bringing the series to 2020. The finale ended with huge news for humanity with the discovery of microbial life on Saturn’s moon Titan. A ceasefire on Mars also offers hope for a better future where Earth acknowledges the Marsies’ claim for the Red Planet.
Both have big implications for the future of the series, as humanity continues to explore and colonize the Solar System. But the most intriguing hint comes in the last moments of the finale, which shows a spaceship coasting the outer solar system. An archaic looking computer panel boots up revealing Cyrillic text referencing Nikulov – presumably Dr. Sergei Orestovich Nikulov (Piotr Adamczyk), the Soviet space program director who was assassinated in season 4 after defecting to the U.S.
It could be that a spacecraft was named for him by Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt) when she was working at Roscosmos. Given how old this equipment looks, it also may be akin to a Soviet version of the Voyager program, a vessel Nikulov sent into space decades ago that will have new importance in the show’s final season.
When will For All Mankind season 6 be released?
For All Mankind season 6 will be release in 2027. Most seasons have had gaps of about 14 months so you can probably expect the final season to premiere next summer. In the meantime, fans can check out Star City, a spinoff of For All Mankind set in the 1970s that premieres on May 29.