Apple's For All Mankind TV Show Trailer: Battlestar Galactica Creator Returns to Spac

[Ulquiorra]

Apple’s For All Mankind TV show trailer offers a first look at the space race drama. Space exploration has enjoyed a lengthy spotlight in cinema for decades. Well before any nation breached Earth’s limits and ventured into the cosmos, Hollywood was imagining the possibilities of such a journey - as well as the dangers.

Films set in space, like those of the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, have certainly captured imaginations in a big way, but films with a more realistic approach have also managed to achieve substantial success. The exploration of space appears to be timeless, though to date, there have been very few programs dealing with it. This is surprising in a time when subscription based streaming services are working overtime to beef up their original content. The heavy competition that streaming leader Netflix is facing seems to increase each month, but the biggest challenges are due this fall when the likes of Disney+ and Apple TV+ are officially up and running.

In the case of Apple TV+, a new Apple press release has revealed that space will indeed be one of the first topics that the new streaming service will explore. For All Mankind is a an original series, set to be released on Apple TV+ this fall, which deals with the global race to put a human being on the moon. The series is created by Battlestar Galactica creator, Ronald D. Moore, and its first official trailer can be viewed below.

https://youtu.be/HZS9M52Bd_w

For All Mankind follows an interesting premise, imagining a 1969 in which America was not the first nation to land on the moon. Instead, the Soviet Union achieves that feat, the results of which have a tremendous impact on the American space program, astronauts and their families. The calmly paced and weighty tone of the trailer seems reminiscent of Oscar-winner Damien Chazelle’s 2018 effort First Man, meaning that For All Mankind will likely appeal to those looking for a space series that’s more rooted in drama than other fictionalized, space-related film and television. It will also potentially find an attentive audience in those who maintain an interest in the actual space race, which saw the Soviet Union become the first nation to reach the surface of the moon back in 1959. Ten years later, in 1969, the United States became the first nation to land on the moon, with astronaut Neil Armstrong establishing himself as the first man in history to walk on the moon.

It still feels too early to make judgements regarding Apple TV+ or For All Mankind, but it seems strange that this is the series that Apple would seek to promote in advance of Apple TV+’s launch. With its cast of relatively little-known actors, there’s every opportunity to build the series into something big, but the show’s concept doesn’t seem like something that can maintain interest for numerous seasons. If the considerable talents of Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling couldn’t raise much interest in First Man, it’s hard to imagine a much smaller scale production such as For All Mankind clicking long-term with audiences. Still, the series offers an unconventional twist on history, meaning its originality could be its strength.