For All Mankind season 4 is blasting off in a matter of hours. One of the best shows on television, the Apple TV Plus drama picks up after another time jump to 2003, picking up with the Happy Valley settlement on Mars having become a thriving, established city.
For All Mankind season 4 premieres with one episode Friday, Nov. 10 at 12:01 a.m. ET on Apple TV Plus.
For All Mankind season 4 continues the epic story that began with a provocative premise: What if the Russians landed on the moon first, before the Americans? The space race never ended, and the two Cold War foes only ramped up the competition to colonize the moon ... and beyond.
Since then, For All Mankind has kept up a breathtaking pace, with season 1 covering the period between 1969 through 1973. Season 2 jumped a decade in time to 1983 and culminated in an explosive finale that puts the people on Earth and on the Moon in danger of complete annihilation. Season 3 fast-forwarded to 1995, when the first astronauts set foot on Mars.
In season 4, the focus of the space program has turned to the capture and mining of extremely valuable, mineral-rich asteroids that could change the future of both Earth and Mars. But simmering tensions between the residents of the now-sprawling international base threaten to undo everything they are working towards. Here's everything you need to know to watch For All Mankind season 4 online.
How to watch For All Mankind season 4 in the US, UK, Canada and Australia
Viewers across the globe can watch For All Mankind season 3 on Apple TV Plus starting Friday, Nov. 10 at 12:01 a.m. ET.
The premiere will consist of one episode. The other nine episodes will drop weekly on Fridays.
Apple TV Plus is available in more than 107 countries around the world.
How to watch For All Mankind season 4 from anywhere on Earth
If you're stuck abroad — in one of the few countries where Apple TV Plus is not available — you will likely run into geo-fenced restrictions trying to watch For All Mankind season 4. But with the help of a virtual private network (VPN), you can access all the services you already pay for, no matter where you are.
Based on our testing, the best VPN is ExpressVPN, which is easy to use and delivers fast internet speeds, making it simple to set up for streaming in no time at all. It also works on practically any device, starting with iOS and Android and including streaming devices such as the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Apple TV.
For All Mankind season 4 trailer
The For All Mankind season 4 trailer quickly recaps what's happened so far in the show, leading up to the declaration that they're on the verge of "a self-sustaining Mars colony." But trouble is brewing, as the Americans, Russians and other international players want a piece of a valuable asteroid.
For All Mankind season 3 cast
The big ensemble cast of For All Mankind is experiencing big changes in season 4.
Two key cast members are not returning: Shantel VanSanten as Karen Baldwin and Sonya Walger as Molly Cobb. Both characters perished in the bombing at Johnson Space Center.
Jodi Balfour is also not returning as a series regular in her role as President Ellen Wilson.
So who is back among the original For All Mankind cast members? Those who are confirmed for season 4 are Joel Kinnaman as Ed Baldwin, Krys Marshall as Danielle Poole and Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison.
The actors playing the younger generation who are reprising their roles include Coral Peña as Aleida Rosales and Cynthy Wu as Kelly Baldwin.
Some new faces are joining For All Mankind season 4:
- Toby Kebbell as Miles, a former offshore oil platform worker who embarks on a thrilling new job opportunity on Mars
- Daniel Stern as Eli Hobson, the new administrator at NASA
- Tyner Rushing as Samantha, a space worker on the Mars colony
- Svetlana Efremova as Irina Morozova, a high-ranking Soviet official
For All Mankind season 4 plot and season 3 finale, explained
The season 3 finale of For All Mankind lived up to the the gut punches of the previous two season finales and, once again, advanced the timeline of the show.
To save Kelly and her baby, the combined NASA Roscosmos and Helios crew members must find a way to launch her aboard the Popeye to rendezvous with Phoenix in orbit.
Danielle and Kuznetsov head out to a Soviet-built probe to retrieve a necessary component. There, they are shocked to be confronted by a gun-wielding North Korean astronaut. Turns out, North Korea beat everybody at landing the first person on Mars. After disarming him, they take him back to Happy Valley.
With the component in place, Popeye can only launch after all the other crew members volunteer to stay back and wait for the next mission to rescue them. Ed will still have to pilot her there, but it's a dangerous flight as he won't have fuel for the return. Danny attempts to alleviate his guilt by volunteering to fly in Ed's place and reveals his role in the mining disaster. This only enrages Ed, who promises to deal with him later.
As everyone prepares for the mission, Margo learns from the Soviets that she is being investigated by the FBI. Karen gets a troubling call about Jimmy Stevens, who has been lurking outside JSC with his conspiracy theorist friends. When he becomes uncertain of their intentions, they lock him up in a van. Karen finds him — and discovers it's housing a bomb.
On Mars, the Popeye launch is successfully and Kelly is able to board Phoenix. Ed manages to survive the crash landing.
On Earth, the bomb goes off. Karen dies under the rubble, while Molly heroically leads survivors out of danger but also perishes. Aleida finds Margo's office torn to shreds and her mentor missing.
Danny is exiled by his fellow crew members to the North Korean vessel. Ellen, now publicly out, shows up on Pam's doorstep again. Margo is revealed to be alive, living in Moscow in 2003.
Margo's choice to evade prison and join the Soviets will be a big part of season 4, according to co-creator Ben Nedivi. He told Variety, "it is definitely one of the storylines we are most excited for in Season 4. It is a real departure for the show."
Russia is, in its way, a new frontier for the show, as Nedivi told TVLine, and they'll be "taking a peek beyond the Iron Curtain in a way that I don’t think we’ve been able to so far on the show."
While the show continue to push forward in space exploration, Mars will still be a major focus. Several questions remain regarding the nascent Mars colony. For one, will the combined crew survive long enough to be rescued? Second, will Danny unearth the North Korean's Chekhov's gun and kill himself?
"I think we’re still not done with Mars yet, to be honest,” Nedivi said. "We just started exploring what is possible on Mars this season, and we didn’t even get there till halfway through this season. So we do intend on kind of building on Mars and seeing a growing colony up there and what is possible up there.”
Back on Earth, aside from Margo's situation, plenty of history awaits between 1995 and 2003, including Ellen's reelection campaign, whether Congress takes control of NASA and changes brought about by the bombing (reminiscent of the the real-life Oklahoma City bombing). For All Mankind finds ways to parallel or put a twist on our own history. It will be interesting, to say the least, to see if and how the show addresses the contentious 2000 election, 9/11 and the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
