For All Mankind spin-off Star City is about to bring back some very familiar characters – but they’ve all been recast from the original.
The prequel is set in 1960s/70s USSR (in parallel to the early seasons of For All Mankind), telling the space race story from the Soviet perspective after they became the first nation to place a man on the moon in the alt-history series.
Within that story, we’re set to see younger versions of iconic For All Mankind characters, most prominently Irina Morozova (played by Svetlana Efremova in For All Mankind and Agnes O’Casey in Star City) and Sergei Nikulov (played by Piotr Adamczyk in for All Mankind and Josef Davies in Star City).
Explaining what went into recasting those roles at a special screening of Star City in partnership with Radio Times, co-creator and showrunner Matt Wolpert told us: “It was certainly complicated because obviously we love the actors who played the older versions of them.
“But honestly, we looked at it as an opportunity to find the younger versions of them, and it was so important to find actors who captured the essence of those characters. With Sergei, Josef Davies brilliantly captures that intelligence and that warm-heartedness of Sergei Nikulov.
“And for Irina Morozova, what was fascinating was, when we meet her in For All Mankind, she’s this kind of cold, powerful woman, and getting to show the kind of the younger version of her who isn’t that at all, and seeing the journey of her and how she became that woman is something that, creatively, we’re really excited to tell.”
Both Davies and O’Casey mentioned to Radio Times that they looked to the performances from their characters’ original actors when crafting the younger versions for Star City.
Davies added: “I think in this telling of him, we’re coming at the younger side of him, I think he’s got a completely different energy, and he he is about to experience all the things that are moulding him into the version of the Sergei that we see later on.”
O’Casey went on to say during a Q&A at the screening: “For those people who have seen For All Mankind, we meet her in a completely different stage in her life. Every moment she is learning what it’s going to mean to fulfil her ambition.”
Joining Davies and O’Casey in the cast of Star City are Anna Maxwell Martin, Rhys Ifans, Adam Nagaitis, Solly McLeod, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Alice Englert, and Priya Kansara.
Star City will premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday 29 May.
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