In my opinion, one of the worst media patterns of the 2020s is the sequel, spinoff and remake trend. It seems you can’t go to the movies or boot up a streaming service without seeing some new franchise addition, and it feels a little boring in most cases. Sure, I think Dune Part 3 is going to be a massive hit, and I am curious about the upcoming Resident Evil adaptation from Weapons director Zach Cregger, but these films are the exception not the rule, as films like Scream 7, Toy Story 5, The Devil Wears Prada 2, and more give me less and less faith in Hollywood’s ability to turn out much in the way of original ideas.

But let me step off my soapbox for a second, because, while I’m overall pretty negative about the idea of spinoffs and sequels, a new Apple TV series has piqued my interest, despite being based on a pre-existing 5-season show. And if you’ve been on a sci-fi kick lately (and who hasn’t), this might actually be the rare spinoff that actually is worth watching.

Price

$13 per month

Free trial

7 day free trial and 3 months free if you buy an Apple device

Simultaneous streams

6

# of profiles

6

Originals

Yes

Live TV:

Limited (There are live sports and some add-on channels offer live TV)

Apple TV+ is a global streaming service which offers on-demand access to a growing list of exclusive content, including Severance, Ted Lasso, Slow Horses, and much more.

What is Star City?

A new spinoff of hit Apple TV series For All Mankind

Though Apple TV has a lot of critically-acclaimed series under its belt, For All Mankind deserves special recognition for being one of the longest-running and consistently high-quality shows on the service. In case you haven’t watched it, the series imagine a world where the Soviet Union beats the United States to the moon, and the “space race” doesn’t end, and instead pushes mankind farther out into the solar system, leading to greater scientific discoveries and even space colonization. Which brings us to Star City.

While For All Mankind features frequent time jumps from the middle of the 20th century all the way to the 2010s, Star City is a new spinoff series that brings us all the way back to the beginning of the story in the 1960s but this time, from the perspective of the Soviet Union. What unfolds looks to be a tense politically-charged thriller that explores how the race to explore the stars became its own Cold War, even in this alternate history.

When is Star City coming out?

The new series debuts on Apple TV May 29

If you’re as excited to check out this new series as I am, you won’t have too long to wait as the series is set to debut its first two episodes on May 29th on Apple TV, which is the same day as the season 5 finale of For All Mankind. The series will then drop an additional episode each Friday until its own season finale on June 10. The first season will have 8 total episodes, and while nothing has been confirmed about anything beyond this initial season, it will be interesting to see if this spinoff series continues taking alternate perspectives of the events of For All Mankind in the future.