For All Mankind is going strong on Apple TV+ in the current third season, which just continues to prove that co-creator Ronald D. Moore has a knack for space travel series. Fans still have three episodes left before the end of Season 3, but now there’s some great news as the finale approaches. Apple TV+ has officially renewed For All Mankind for Season 4, and CinemaBlend has the scoop from the show’s bosses about the plans for the end of the season and the “long term.”
The co-creators and executive producers of For All Mankind spoke with CinemaBlend’s Katie Hughes at San Diego Comic-Con to share some details about what fans can expect now that a fourth season is guaranteed. Ronald D. Moore, who co-created, executive produces, and writes for one of the best Apple TV shows, previewed how the end of Season 3 is going to set up the beginning of Season 4:
It definitely is going to push us into the fourth season. I would say that there's some big twists coming at the end. There's some events that are going to happen in the last few episodes that I hope that the audience doesn't see coming, and are going to change a lot of things in the Mankind universe.
The seven episodes of Season 3 so far have delivered plenty for fans to consider and question, particularly in light of the time jump ahead to the ‘90s and the Mars mission. According to Ronald D. Moore, fans may not be able to guess about what the finale is going to deliver. Whether that’s something to be totally excited or a little bit nervous about remains to be seen, but at least we don’t have to be nervous that the show is going to be done for good with the upcoming finale.
Maril Davis, another executive producer (who has also collaborated with Moore on Outlander), elaborated on the plan for the show beyond the game-changing events of the rest of Season 3. She shared:
Also, we have a whole plan, like a ten-year plan. So if Apple wants to give us those seasons, we're ready.
It’s a little early to say if For All Mankind has another seven seasons on the way to Apple TV+, but Season 4 is guaranteed, and a “ten-year plan” indicates that the pieces are already in place for what comes next. The bosses weren’t going to spoil all of the details about what’s to come, but Moore dropped an interesting detail when asked if the show is preparing to catch up to present day:
And beyond! We'd like to catch up. There was always the plan from the outset to keep this sort of roughly more or less a decade jump every season, and to just keep going and to catch up to where we are and hopefully, pass where we are.
If For All Mankind keeps up with the decade time jumps, then Season 4 should be set in the early-to-mid 2000s, and it’s not too much further to hit the 2020s. The series obviously is telling an alternate version of history, but it would definitely be interesting to see how it handled not only catching up to modern day, but then surpassing it and truly having a completely blank slate.
Creator/writer/executive producer Ben Nedivi confirmed that the time jumps from season to season have always been the plan, and that plan hasn’t changed. He said:
The long term plan of the show was always to jump in time each season, so eventually we could get to the present potentially, and even maybe the future.
For All Mankind is officially one giant leap closer to the present thanks to the renewal for Season 4, which is especially reassuring now with only a few episodes left before the final credits roll on Season 3. The future is presumably still a few seasons away, but if the bosses’ comments are any indication, the ride for Apple TV+ subscribers is going to be an exciting one.
New episodes of For All Mankind Season 3 release on Fridays on Apple TV+. For some more viewing options now and in the not-too-distant future, be sure to check out our 2022 TV premiere schedule and our list of sci-fi shows that fans might enjoy.
