Will For All Mankind Season 6 Go Full Star Trek? The Showrunner Tells Us [Exclusive]

That is one small step for man, one big spoiler for the Season 5 finale of “For All Mankind.”

It lastly occurred. After a scary and thrilling journey to Titan that introduced again one of the best a part of “For All Mankind,” the Apple TV sci-fi present launched alien life. Are we about to enter “Star Trek” territory?

The hunt for all times has served as half of the primary thrust of Season 5, with the opposite half dedicated to the battle of independence on Mars — which culminated this episode after an invasion straight out of “Dune.” These are two ideas that really feel just like the furthest the present has gone into the sci-fi style and into its alternate timeline, however they have been integral to the general blueprint of “For All Mankind.”

/Movie had an opportunity to speak to showrunners Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert concerning the Season 5 finale, the invention of life, and what it means for Season 6. Nedivi highlighted how lengthy this discovery has been within the thoughts of the writers.

“We all the time knew we have been going to get right here, however we knew this was sort of the ultimate discovery, the ultimate street that we have been going to take,” Nedivi defined. “It felt prefer it wanted to be earned and this journey to Titan with all of the twists and turns and the sacrifices which have needed to been made, particularly by Kelly herself, by the point this discovery is made, it felt like such an uplifting factor for even us as writers.”

“I feel we as people have been speaking about and occupied with and telling tales about without end when it comes to is there life on the market, are we alone,” he continued. “I feel it has been a query so central, not solely to science fiction, however to all of us.”

Within the Season 5 finale, after climbing up a mountain to rescue an injured crewmate, Kelly Baldwin (Cynthy Wu) takes some samples that she later identifies as dwelling microorganisms, methane-based life that is not like something on Earth. It is a discovery that adjustments the whole lot for the present, and it solely grows from there.

Within the remaining scene, proper earlier than a time soar that leaves us with an ominous cliffhanger, we return to Kelly. She is left alone to die on Titan after she volunteered to avoid wasting oxygen and permit her two crewmates to return safely to Mars. Whereas overlooking a methane lake, she sees mild emanating from it, bioluminescence that reacts as she approaches the lake and begins strolling on it.

“As she’s moving into that lake, her steps are triggering these microbes to glow and encompass her in a approach that individuals do right here on Earth when it comes to moving into the ocean and being surrounded by these microbes,” showrunner Matt Wolpert defined. “We expect they discovered this one little pattern of microbial life on Titan and what she steps into on the finish is there’s a lot extra. It isn’t simply this one little puddle that this moon is teeming with life.”

So there’s alien life within the “For All Mankind” universe, however do not get forward of your self considering we’re about to have first contact.

As showrunner Ben Nedivi informed us, the writers have been nicely conscious that the additional the present goes, the extra it could get into sci-fi and cope with “Issues which are so theoretical that you do not know if it may be.”

“We nonetheless attempt as a lot as attainable to floor it in science, we nonetheless drive our researchers loopy making an attempt to ensure the physics is smart,” he added.

“For All Mankind” has all the time tried to stay grounded. The primary two seasons have been largely primarily based round current expertise or tasks that have been thought of and deliberate however by no means made, just like the Sea Dragon ship. However now we’re at some extent the place humanity has landed on a moon of Jupiter and located alien life — which ideas the present right into a “Star Trek” zone. 

For Ben Nedivi, even the ultimate scene with Kelly discovering the lake energetic will not be meant to be a tease of one thing bigger.

“When it got here to this discovery on the finish, we did a ton of analysis to ensure this feels grounded,” Nedivi defined. “It is type of develop into extra science fiction, a little bit extra fantastical, however I nonetheless really feel despite that, we attempt very exhausting to maintain it as near sciences as attainable at this level.”

Subsequent season, nevertheless, issues might change — a bit. It appears clear that “For All Mankind” will not really introduce alien civilizations, however the ending of Season 5 appears to tease a sixth season that takes us even additional to the celebs.

The season ends with a cliffhanger, a scene set in 2020 of a Russian spaceship from the ’90s that has drifted off into area and is now orbiting a planet with rings. Stands to purpose that is Saturn, but it surely is also one thing outdoors the Photo voltaic System. The scene ends with a cryptic message that seemingly signifies the ship is detecting gravitational wells, a possible key within the subsequent step in navigation and propulsion expertise. Season 6 goes to be the tip of “For All Mankind,” so it stands to purpose it can finish with a bang, possibly a bang outdoors our photo voltaic system.