For All Mankind Season 2 is getting ready to launch. Apple TV+ announced Thursday that the alternate universe space drama will premiere Friday, February 19, 2021, while also revealing some new cast members key to the show's new placement in time.

As we've known since the post-credits scene of the Season 1 finale, For All Mankind Season 2 will pick up in the year 1983, well into this new version of space exploration history. The official description, from Apple TV+:

It’s the height of the Cold War and tensions between the United States and the USSR are at their peak. Ronald Reagan is President and the greater ambitions of science and space exploration are at threat of being squandered as the US and Soviets go head to head to control sites rich in resources on the moon. The Department of Defense has moved into Mission Control, and the militarization of NASA becomes central to several characters' stories: some fight it, some use it as an opportunity to advance their own interests, and some find themselves at the height of a conflict that may lead to nuclear war.

Season 1 stars Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman, Sarah Jones, Shantel VanSanten, Wrenn Schmidt, Jodi Balfour, Krys Marshall, and Sonya Walger will return to the series (obviously with some help from hair and make-up that reflects their new era and ages), while three new cast members have been revealed:

  • Cynthy Wu (“Holidate,” “Before I Fall,” “American Vandal”) as ‘Kelly Baldwin,’ Ed (Kinnaman) and Karen’s (VanSanten) adopted daughter.
  • Coral Peña (“Chemical Hearts,” “The Post”) as ‘Aleida Rosales,’ a brilliant engineer with a complicated past.
  • Casey W. Johnson (“GLOW,” “Rise”) as ‘Danny Stevens,’ the son of astronauts Gordo (Dorman) and Tracy (Jones)

While Wu is playing a new character to the show, fans will immediately recognize Peña and Johnson's characters as those who were played by Olivia Trujillo and Mason Thames in Season 1. And Peña's casting is most intriguing because Aleida's fate at the end of Season 1 felt uncertain: Despite Margo (Schmidt) helping her get into a Kennedy School program, her father Octavio (Arturo Del Puerto) was deported and she was left functionally homeless. Her description as "a brilliant engineer with a complicated past" indicates that she managed to keep pursuing her interest in math and science, but we'll have to wait for Season 2 in order to learn the full story.

The 10-episode second season will drop one episode at a time, beginning on Friday, February 19, 2021, on Apple TV+. Check out some first look images below, as well as our most recent interview with co-creator Ronald D. Moore.

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Image via Apple TV+
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Image via Apple TV+
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Image via Apple TV+