If you loved For All Mankind - Apple TV's acclaimed alternate-history space race drama - then Star City is about to take everything you thought you knew and flip it entirely.
Paranoid thriller, Star City takes us back to the key moment in the alt-history retelling of the space race - when the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the Moon. But this time, we're not watching from the American side. We're behind the Iron Curtain, seeing the lives of the cosmonauts, the engineers, and the intelligence officers embedded among them in the Soviet space program - and the risks they all took to propel humanity forward.
Who stars in Star City?
Rhys Ifans as Chief Designer
Welsh actor Rhys Ifans leads the ensemble as the Chief Designer, the brilliant driving force behind the entire Soviet space programme. Stationed in the highly secretive Star City Training Centre hidden in the forests outside Moscow, he’s tasked with designing the tech needed to beat the Americans to the moon. Because of his extreme value to the USSR, his real name is hidden to protect him from potential assassination attempts. He must operate in a paranoid, high-stakes environment constantly monitored by KGB surveillance teams.
Rhys Ifans first came to international attention playing Spike, Hugh Grant's gloriously scruffy Welsh housemate in Notting Hill (1999) and quickly built on that success. Further film credits include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) as the eccentric Xenophilius Lovegood, Dr Curt Connors - the villainous Lizard - in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), and Grigori Rasputin in The King's Man (2021).
He made his small screen debut presenting Stwnsh (1990), an anarchic Welsh-language children's quiz show on S4C. His television breakthrough, however, came with the BAFTA-winning TV film Not Only But Always (2004), in which he played iconic British comedian Peter Cook - a performance so compelling it earned him a BAFTA Best Actor award and an Emmy nomination.
He then went on to play Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's imperious older brother, across seven episodes of the Elementary (2013–2014), then Hector DeJean in the espionage thriller Berlin Station (2016–2018). His biggest television role to date came with House of the Dragon (2022–present), in which he plays Ser Otto Hightower.
Anna Maxwell Martin as Lyudmilla Raskova
Anna Maxwell Martin plays Lyudmilla Raskova, the steely head of the KGB surveillance department at Star City. She does whatever is necessary to keep the Soviet space program's secrets safe, operating in a highly paranoid environment where cosmonauts and engineers are also suspects.
Anna Maxwell Martin first came to television prominence playing Bessie Higgins in North and South (2004), before landing the role of Esther Summerson, the central character in the BBC's adaptation of Bleak House (2005), winning the BAFTA Best Actress Award for her performance. She followed that with another BAFTA-winning turn, playing N in Poppy Shakespeare (2008), and then got another nomination for South Riding (2011).
As her career took off, Anna became a comedy favourite playing the gloriously chaotic Barbara in Motherland (2016–2022), and thrilled crime drama fans as the deliciously sinister DCS Patricia Carmichael in Line of Duty (2019–2021). More recently she delivered a powerhouse performance as real-life stalking victim Delia Balmer in Until I Kill You (2024).
On the big screen, Anna Maxwell Martin appeared alongside Anne Hathaway in Becoming Jane (2007), and alongside Judi Dench and Steve Coogan in the Oscar-nominated Philomena (2013). Most recently she redefined 1930s satirical comedy in Fackham Hall (2025).
Alice Englert as Anastasia Belikova
Anastasia Belikova (Alice Englert) is the first woman to land on the Moon in the show and Alice says she took inspiration from real cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova for the role.
‘One of the things that really struck me is that she starts in a place where courage isn't something she chooses,’ Alice says. ‘It's just a response to terror and to the deepest of rooted insecurities you could possibly have. It's fear masquerading as courage. But what I liked is watching her wake up and actually have to be a person, even if that person wasn't as interesting or as useful to the state as it was to her.’
As the daughter of Oscar-nominated New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion, Alice Englert has screenwork in her blood but has worked hard to prove she’s no nepobaby. She played the enchanted Lady Pole in lavish period fantasy Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2015), before appearing in her mother's celebrated miniseries Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017).
Then, after taking the lead in the acclaimed Netflix drama Ratched (2020), she turned on the seduction for Dangerous Liaisons (2022), before raising our heart rates in Australian thriller series Exposure (2023).
Alice Englert made her feature film debut in Sally Potter's critically acclaimed period drama Ginger & Rosa (2012), playing the rebellious Rosa opposite Elle Fanning - a performance which earned her a British Independent Film Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She followed that with the lead role of Lena Duchannes in the supernatural romance Beautiful Creatures (2013). Further film credits include Them That Follow (2019), a supporting role alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in her mum Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning The Power of the Dog (2021), and You Won't Be Alone (2022). She also wrote and directed her debut feature Bad Behaviour in 2023.
Agnes O'Casey as Irina Morozov
Irina Morozov (Agnes O'Casey) is a new addition to the KGB surveillance team, tasked with keeping a close eye on individuals in the Soviet space program to prevent secrets from leaking to the West. She’s mentored directly by Lyudmilla Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin), who heads the KGB surveillance operation at Star City.
Agnes O'Casey is the great-granddaughter of celebrated Irish playwright Seán O'Casey and her TV breakthrough came with Ridley Road (2021), in which she played Vivien Epstein - a young Jewish woman who goes undercover infiltrating a fascist group in 1960s London. She then appeared in lavish period drama Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (2024), and spy thriller Black Doves (2024).
When it comes to movies, Agnes O'Casey made her feature film debut in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's comedy-drama The Miracle Club (2023), playing Dolly - one of a group of Dublin women on a pilgrimage to Lourdes alongside Laura Linney. That same year she played the lead in the gothic thriller Lies We Tell (2023). She also appeared alongside Cillian Murphy in Tim Mielants' critically acclaimed Small Things Like These (2024).
Solly McLeod as Sasha Polivanov
Sasha Polivanov (Solly McLeod) is a reckless cosmonaut and central to the Soviet Union’s high-pressure, dangerous race against the United States to colonize the Moon and space. Despite his immense potential, his recklessness creates friction and danger within the confined, paranoid world of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre.
Solly McLeod's television breakthrough came with supernatural thriller The Rising (2022) and the same year he appeared in global phenomenon House of the Dragon (2022), the Game of Thrones prequel. His first true leading television role came with ITV's lavish period drama Tom Jones (2023), in which he played the roguish Tom alongside Hannah Waddingham and Sophie Wilde - a milestone he’s described as one of the most important experiences of his career. He then freaked us out as troubled neighbour Jan in the psychological thriller Fear (2025), opposite Martin Compston.
In the cinema Solly McLeod has built an equally impressive film career from survival thriller Jericho Ridge (2023), before landing a role in Viggo Mortensen's critically acclaimed Western The Dead Don't Hurt (2023) and then period adventure William Tell (2024). Later this year he has Practical Magic 2 (2026) and Anxious People (2026) coming up.
How does Star City relate to For All Mankind_?_
Created by the same trio behind For All Mankind — Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert, and Ronald D. Moore, Star City is not just another random spin off show. The connection to For All Mankind is very clear. Several characters from the parent show reappear as younger versions of themselves, recast to reflect their earlier lives.
One of the most compelling threads centres on Anastasia Belikova (Alice Englert), the first woman to land on the Moon. In For All Mankind, she was little more than a face on a TV screen, but Star City tells the full story of what came before and after that historic moment.
Showrunner Matt Wolpert has promised Easter eggs throughout Star City and storylines that were throw away comments in the original series are given the full spotlight in this classy new show.
‘The hard thing with For All Mankind was how much was known about the Apollo program,’ Ben Nedivi has explained. ‘So we had to find our own way. [With Star City] I actually think it’s an advantage. So little is known. So it feels like, even though it’s alt history, I think a lot of people watching the show are going to discover things and go, ‘There’s no way that’s real,’ and they will see. ‘No, no, no. It is…’ They were beating the Americans left and right forever. The fact that the Americans won the space race is sort of absurd considering the level of victories they had.’
But don't panic, the team say they made sure that you don’t have to have watched For All Mankind to watch Star City.
When and where can I watch Star City?
You can watch Star City on Apple TV from Friday 29 May.
Caroline has been interviewing famous TV faces for magazines and radio since she was a teenager and has a soft spot for Anna Maxwell-Martin so will be tuning in to Star City!