Fans of science fiction television have noticed some interesting similarities between two of the most popular space dramas of the last decade. Apple TV+’s For All Mankind and Amazon Prime’s The Expanse both deal with humanity spreading out across the solar system, dealing with life on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. With For All Mankind recently wrapping its fourth season and moving further into the future, some viewers have started asking a fun question: Could the alternate history of For All Mankind eventually lead to the world seen in The Expanse?
While the two shows are not officially connected, there is a fun Easter egg that links them, and the direction of For All Mankind has fans drawing comparisons. Here is what you need to know about the relationship between these two sci-fi heavyweights.
The Easter Egg That Started the Rumors
The most direct connection between the two shows is a hidden reference that eagle-eyed viewers spotted in season 5 of The Expanse. In the first episode of that season, titled “Exodus,” character Amos Burton (Wes Chatham) visits Luna, Earth’s colony on the Moon. The year is 2355. As Amos walks through a tunnel, a digital advertisement flashes on the wall. The sign reads: “Explore historic Jamestown Base, est. 1973” .
For fans of For All Mankind, this is a direct nod to the lunar base that is central to the Apple TV+ series. In the world of For All Mankind, Jamestown is the first American base on the Moon, established in October 1973 on the rim of Shackleton Crater . The base grows over the decades, eventually becoming a permanent settlement with mining facilities, nuclear power, and housing for dozens of astronauts and technicians .
This Easter egg confirms that the writers of The Expanse are aware of For All Mankind and wanted to pay homage to it. It suggests that in the far future of The Expanse, the Jamestown base from the 20th century is remembered as a historic landmark, much like we today might visit the site of the first Apollo landing.
Two Different Kinds of Sci-Fi Stories
Despite the Easter egg, the two shows are not set in the same official universe. The Expanse is based on the novel series by James S. A. Corey (the pen name for writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), while For All Mankind is an original creation by Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, and Ben Nedivi for Apple TV+ .
The core concepts of the shows are also very different.
For All Mankind asks a simple “what if” question: What if the Soviet Union had landed on the Moon first? This single change creates a ripple effect through history. The space race never ends. Instead, it intensifies, leading to a permanent Moon base in the 1970s, a mission to Mars in the 1990s, and a growing asteroid mining economy by the early 2000s . The show is an alternate history drama that looks at how competition in space changes society on Earth, from civil rights to technology. The creators have said they envision the story spanning about seven seasons and covering at least 70 years of this altered timeline .
The Expanse, on the other hand, is set hundreds of years in our future. It does not look back at a changed past. Instead, it imagines a fully realized solar system where humanity has colonized the Moon, Mars, the asteroid belt, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn . It is a political space opera with its own complex history involving war between Earth and Mars, the oppression of “Belters” who mine the asteroids, and the discovery of an alien protomolecule .
Why Fans See a Connection
As For All Mankind moves forward in time, viewers have noticed that its world is starting to resemble the early foundations of The Expanse. By the end of season 4, which flashes forward to the early 2000s, the situation includes :
- A growing population on Mars that no longer considers Earth their home.
- A thriving economy based on mining an asteroid for valuable resources like iridium.
- Tensions between the people living in space and those back on Earth.
These are exactly the kinds of conditions that, if stretched out over another 200 years, could lead to the world of The Expanse, where Martians see themselves as a separate nation and Belters are exploited for their labor in the asteroid mines.
Fans on platforms like Hacker News have pointed out that they consider For All Mankind, The Expanse, and even the film The Martian to be an unofficial “holy trinity” of modern realistic science fiction . The creators of these projects have praised each other’s work, and the shared attention to scientific detail makes them feel like they could exist in the same timeline, even if they officially do not.
One fan noted that The Expanse had a ship named the MCRN Watney, a clear reference to Mark Watney, the protagonist of The Martian, further adding to this shared universe feeling .
The Real Timeline Explained
So, to answer the question directly: No, For All Mankind is not a prequel to The Expanse. They are separate shows produced by different networks with different source materials.
However, the Easter egg in The Expanse treats For All Mankind as ancient history within its universe. It is a fun nod that rewards fans who watch both series. You can think of it as a respectful tip of the hat from the creators of The Expanse to the creators of For All Mankind.
If you enjoy the realistic space exploration and political tensions of For All Mankind, you will likely enjoy The Expanse as well. Both shows focus on the physics of space travel and the human drama of living far from Earth. As one reviewer for RNZ put it, The Expanse is “another rip-roaring epic about exploring the unknown,” combining cosmic mystery with very human conflicts .
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Where to Watch Both Series
You can watch all four seasons of For All Mankind exclusively on Apple TV+. The series has been renewed for a fifth season, and a spin-off focusing on the Soviet space program, titled Star City, is also in development .
All six seasons of The Expanse are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video. The series concluded in January 2022 after a well-received six-season run .
While these two worlds remain separate, the connection through the Jamestown Easter egg offers a satisfying link for fans who love to imagine a broader science fiction universe. It suggests that in the distant future of The Expanse, the brave astronauts of For All Mankind are not forgotten—they are part of history.
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