Fans Want to Know if 'For All Mankind' Spinoff 'Star City' Is Based on a True Story

Fans of the Apple TV space drama For All Mankind are in for a special treat. The space travel drama has a spin-off on the way, Star City, and they are curious if the show is based on a true story.

For All Mankind explores what would have happened to the race to space if astronauts from the Soviet Union landed on the Moon first instead of U.S. astronauts. Star City per Apple TV.

"A bold new chapter inspired by the critically acclaimed space-race drama, For All Mankind, Star City is a propulsive paranoid thriller that 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," reads the description.

"But this time, we explore the story from behind the Iron Curtain, showing 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 humankind forward," it continued.

No, Star City is not a true story. The show is a fictional story taking place during the Cold War outside of Moscow. However, according to the Smithsonian, the spy thriller is based on the real-life Russian city hidden outside the capital.

Cosmonauts (Russian astronauts), engineers, and scientists lived and trained together in the secret city as the KGB monitored them.

According to co-creator Ben Nedivi, research conducted by himself and co-creator Matt Wolpert led to the idea for the new series, per Decider.

Matt Wolpert added that he sees Star City as a "companion piece" to For All mankind.

“I think, though, it was really important to us that the show stand on its own two feet also and not feel like sort of a just a spin-off of the other show," he said. "It’s really more of a companion piece. It is less about the kind of overlapping character-based things, and it’s more about just telling a different story within this world."

He added that after more Russian characters were introduced in For All Mankind, the idea evolved, and they pitched the show to studio executives.

"We actually came to Apple and Sony and kind of said, ‘Guys, I think there’s something here. I think there’s something really compelling here,'" he said.

“I think, though, it was really important to us that the show stand on its own two feet also and not feel like sort of a just a spin-off of the other show. It’s really more of a companion piece,” Wolpert said. “It is less about the kind of overlapping character-based things and it’s more about just telling a different story within this world.”

Rhys Ifans, Anna Maxwell Martin, Alice Englert, Solly McLeod, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Agnes O’Casey, Adam Nagaitis, and Josef Davies star in Apple TV's Star City. The thriller premieres on May 29, 2026.