Why Star City Is Secretly An Origin Story For The Best Villain In For All Mankind [exclusive]

Apple TV

Spoilers ahead for the "Star City" premiere, "The Eyes."

Apple TV's "Star City" is more than a spin-off of the streamer's excellent sci-fi drama "For All Mankind." The two shows are very different, with "Star City" mixing space exploration and Cold War intrigue à la "The Americans." Indeed, the biggest surprise is just how tonally different the series is from "For All Mankind." Rather than simply re-imagining its parent show from a Soviet perspective, it's a spy thriller about how hard it is to do good work with the KGB breathing down your neck.

As a prequel, "Star City" connects to "For All Mankind" in crucial ways. Unexpectedly, its first episode, "The Eyes," specifically zeroes in on Irina Morozova (Agnes O'Casey), an idealistic young new member of the KGB surveillance department at Star City. Of course, the older version of Irina is the biggest villain on "For All Mankind," having evolved into a ruthless KGB and Roscosmos veteran who's caused a great deal of pain for the show's main characters. In "Star City," however, Irina has yet to become that person. 

When /Film spoke with Ben Nedivi, the co-showrunner of "Star City," he noted that the series is essentially Irina's origin story:

"It was one of the things that inspired us to do this. I think what's fascinating about her is when you meet her on 'For All Mankind' in Season 4, she's a terrifying woman who you're scared whenever she opens her mouth, what she'll do."

"So, we thought in the great tradition of humanity, we're not born evil, and to see her start and to see her beginning that journey that takes us to where we [...] If you watch 'For All Mankind,' you understand where this ends up," Nedivi added.

Apple TV

The Irina in "For All Mankind" is ruthless, calculating, and focused on achieving her goals at any cost, even if it involves executions or torture. In "Star City," on the other hand, Irina couldn't be further from her future self, and the show is all the better for it.

"It felt like a great opportunity to tell that kind of character arc where, what made her into that woman? What changed her?," Ben Nedivi explained. "So, when you see her and you see she has a young daughter now and that she's starting out, and there's an innocence to her."

"How is that innocence taken away? How is that broken down by the system and by the experiences she goes through, not only in the first episode, but in the few episodes this season?" he continued.

We see the beginning of that loss of innocence in the "Star City" premiere, where Irina quickly realizes that the job is not as reputable as she believed. Rather, she spends most of the episode spying on personal conversations and intimate moments between strangers. Similarly, when she discovers a colleague's mistake led to an innocent woman being sent to prison, Irina feels good ... until her boss orders her to murder said innocent woman, because the KGB doesn't send innocents to prison.

Mind you, "Star City" isn't merely trying to tell a good-character-breaks-bad story; it's all about why an idealist like Irina would eventually cave in to the Soviet system's oppressive and aggressive tactics in a bid to survive. That's both an excellent approach and further proof that "Star City" could end up being the first of many spin-offs of its kind.

"Star City" is now streaming on Apple TV.