Apple TV has released the first trailer and key details for the fifth season of its popular alternate history series, For All Mankind. The show will return with a new 10-episode season this March, moving its story into the 2010s and focusing on a growing conflict between Earth and the settlers of Mars.
Season 5 Release Date and Schedule
The new season will premiere globally on Friday, March 27, 2026, on Apple TV+. Following the pattern of past seasons, new episodes will be released weekly. The season is scheduled to conclude with its finale on Friday, May 29.
This marks the show’s return after more than two years, with the previous season having ended in January 2024. All previous seasons are currently available to stream on the platform.
Plot Details: A Thriving Mars and Rising Tensions
The official story description sets the stage for the new conflicts. The season picks up in the years following the major event that concluded Season 4: the hijacking of the valuable Goldilocks asteroid for Mars.
Season five of โFor All Mankindโ picks up in the years since the Goldilocks asteroid heist. Happy Valley has grown into a thriving colony with thousands of residents and a base for new missions that will take us even further into the solar system. But with the nations of Earth now demanding law and order on the Red Planet, friction continues to build between the people who live on Mars and their former home.
The show’s timeline will advance to the early 2010s. The Mars colony, Happy Valley, is now a large, established settlement. However, its success and independence have led to increased demands from Earth governments for control, creating the central tension for the new season.
Returning and New Cast Members
The ensemble cast features a mix of familiar faces from the long-running story and several new actors joining as series regulars.
Key returning cast members include:
- Joel Kinnaman as Ed Baldwin, the iconic astronaut who has been with the series since Season 1.
- Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison.
- Toby Kebbell as Miles Dale.
- Edi Gathegi as Dev Ayesa.
- Cynthy Wu as Kelly Baldwin.
- Coral Peรฑa as Aleida Rosales.
New actors joining the main cast for Season 5 are:
- Mireille Enos (known for The Killing) playing Celia Boyd, a member of the Mars Peacekeeper Security Force.
- Costa Ronin (from The Americans) as Lenya, a Soviet politician and former cosmonaut.
- Sean Kaufman (from The Summer I Turned Pretty).
- Ruby Cruz (from Bottoms).
- Ines Asserson (from Royalteen).
Sources note that Krys Marshall, who played astronaut Danielle Poole, was not included in the initial casting announcement for this season. Additional recurring roles will be played by Barrett Carnahan and Tyler Labine.
What the First Trailer Shows
The brief teaser trailer provides a first look at the new era. It features a voiceover from Joel Kinnaman’s Ed Baldwin, who says, “You’re gonna do things people can’t even fathom”.
The visual highlights include an astronaut riding a motorcycle across the Martian landscape, showcasing the colony’s advanced development. The trailer also introduces Sean Kaufman’s character, strongly hinted to be Alex Poletov Baldwinโthe adult son of Kelly Baldwin and the grandson of Ed Baldwin. This aligns with the show’s theme of passing the torch to a new generation of space explorers.
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Series Background and Future
For All Mankind first launched on Apple TV+ in November 2019 and helped establish the service’s reputation for high-quality science fiction. The series imagines a world where the global space race never ended after the Soviet Union beat the United States to the Moon. Each season has jumped forward roughly a decade, following the technological, social, and personal consequences of this continuous exploration.
The show has been critically praised, with later seasons achieving very high scores on review aggregator sites. While Season 5 is confirmed for March, the show’s creators have previously discussed plans for the story to potentially continue for six or seven seasons total.
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