Apple is set to release the upcoming sophomore season of For All Mankind—it’s alternate history series where the Soviet Union reached the Moon first, rather than the US—on February 19th, and with just weeks to go, they’ve released a new trailer showing off how things are faring between the two superpowers.
The short answer? Not well.
Battlestar Galactica‘s Ron Moore created the show for Apple’s streaming service, Apple TV+, and it follows a beleaguered NASA in the 1960s as they watch the Soviets land on the Moon ahead of the Apollo 11 mission. To catch up, NASA begins recruiting more women and people of color to join the astronaut corps as they work on an even more ambitious project: maintaining a permanent presence on the lunar surface.
Where the first season saw the two superpowers establish their own bases on the Moon (and deal with plenty of problems along the way) in the 1970s, season two will jump a couple of years to 1983, and as we see in the trailer, the Cold War hasn’t shown any sign of slowing down.
NASA has grown its presence on the Moon, establishing bigger bases that’ll support more people, and they’re worried that the USSR has brought up some nuclear weapons to their own bases, where they would escalate the nuclear arms race between the two superpowers. “If we let this go,” someone says, “this would set a dangerous precedent.”
Along the way, we find that NASA’s bringing in new astronauts who’ll be using even new hardware, like Pathfinder, a more powerful version of the Space Shuttle. All of it points to a growing crisis between the US and USSR, one that could flash into a hot nuclear war if the wrong decision is made.
The season will debut on February 19th, and already, we can look forward to another season beyond that—back in December, Apple renewed the show for a third outing.
