The first look images for Season 3 of Apple TV+ alternate-history series For All Mankind takes us straight to Mars, reveals EW. Together with the new images, For All Mankind co-creators, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, commented on how the show began to have disturbing similarities with the actual flow of history and how the current geopolitical events affect the series’ plot.

Created by Nedivi, Wolpert, and Ronald D. Moore, For All Mankind explores an alternate timeline where the Soviet Union, and not the United States, were the first to put people on the moon. This change snowballs in a world where the space race never came to an end, with the Cold War gaining strength instead of losing it. The show’s first season explored the arrival of a Soviet cosmonaut to the moon and the global repercussions of the event. Season 2 was set a decade later, exploring how the whole world was changed by the permanence of the space race and the supremacy of the Soviet Union. Now, the first look images underline how Season 3 will take astronauts to Mars in the middle of the 1990s.

The first look images also tease the return of the series’ recurring cast members, with Jodi Balfour’s Ellen becoming a U.S. Senator after directing NASA in the previous season. The first look images also feature Wrenn Schmidt as Margo and Joel Kinnaman as Ed Baldwin. Other returning cast members include Shantel VanSanten, Sonya Walger, Krys Marshall, Cynthy Wu, Casey Johnson, and Coral Peña. Season 3 is also adding Edi Gathegi as a new visionary who sets his eyes on the stars.

Together with the first look images, Wolpert and Nedivi also discussed how their alternate history show is starting to reflect recent events. While the Cold War was a distant event to younger generations who watch the series, the war in Ukraine reignited the political split between Russia and the United States. Besides that, the renewed faith in space exploration led to the launch of multiple private rocket launches in the last couple of years, which helps the new developments of the show look more credible. As Nedivi explains it:

“When we premiered, this idea of a Cold War was very foreign to our younger viewers, and the idea that by season 3 it’s become almost more relevant than ever is fascinating — also when it comes to the space race, the reignited interest in missions to the moon that NASA is doing, the private space industry, to Mars, and even some of the locations on the moon and Mars that we’ve looked at in terms of where to land, where to go. We find ourselves many times interacting with real research that’s happening in real time right now. We’re seeing footage that’s coming back from Mars — the colors and the feel, the texture, the rocks — and we’re incorporating that into the show through the visual effects and everything in real time. We’re telling the story of an alternate history, but we speak to what’s actually happening in the present more and more as the show gets further and further into this alternate future.”

The first two seasons of For All Mankind are available to stream on Apple TV+ now. Season 3 premieres on Friday, June 10. Check out the first look images below.

Here’s the official synopsis for Season 3 of For All Mankind:

“The propulsive new season of the alternate-reality series takes viewers to a new decade, moving into the early ‘90s with a high-octane race to a new planetary frontier: MARS. The Red Planet becomes the new front in the Space Race not only for the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but also an unexpected new entrant with a lot to prove and even more at stake. Our characters find themselves going head-to-head as their ambitions for Mars come into conflict and their loyalties are tested, creating a pressure cooker that builds to a climactic conclusion.”

via Collider