For All Mankind has returned to Apple TV+ with its second season set 10 years after the events of the season 1 finale. At the virtual press day for the series, Paul Simpson chatted with executive producers Ronald D. Moore and Maril Davis, and Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi…

 

What’s been the biggest challenge, both conceptually and in terms of actually bringing For All Mankind to the screen, of this second year?

Ronald D. Moore: Well, physically it’s always a challenging production because of the time jumps we’re doing – jumping ahead and having to reinvent the world, update all the sets and the costumes, age actors and cast new ones for other people that have aged up, like kids into adults.

So there’s a lot of physical production challenges and then probably the creative challenge is moving characters ahead ten years of their lives. Who are they ten years later? That’s evolved and surprising and still recognisable as who they were.

Did you, when you started off on this, have a clear idea of how these characters were going to progress or has elements that came out during production of season 1 informed how you took them forward?

Moore: We had a general idea of some of the characters, not all of them. We hadn’t projected all of them forward but by and large it all evolves in the writers room. Even whatever assumptions we had of certain characters going into the second season, I’d say they probably all changed one way or another, in big ways and small once we really started getting our hands in it.

Maril Davis: But also I think, like on any show, once you see how the characters interact with each other and the chemistry of certain couplings I think that also affects how the writers write them and write to them.

Is there any specific instance that you can say, on this season, that you wouldn’t have expected to happen when you were first going into this?

Davis: I don’t know if it’s in the second season or not but I think the first season when we saw Karen and Wayne together, we were like ‘That coupling is really interesting’ and I’m not sure we had anticipated that, That coupling and also Baldwin with Molly. It was a really fun, refreshing change up of your normal friendships.

We all know from talking to guys in your position the problems that are involved in setting up a first season of a show but what are the challenges that you faced setting up the second season of this one? Particularly taking into account the time jump.

Matt Wolpert: Yes, we really made our lives pretty difficult because usually you spend the first season setting up things and then you can just go from there but every season of our show is a kind of reboot of the show because we’re jumping to a new decade so things look different.

There’s different costumes and hair styles and we have to age our characters up but also filling in what happened in their lives over the last ten years.

So it’s a real challenge but it’s something that we find really fun as well.

Did you actually work out, for each of the regular characters, what actually does happen or does that build during the writers room as you’re plotting out the season? “We have got to get them to point A, therefore this trauma, this piece of healing happens here”. Joel refers to the fact that his character seemed a lot happier than he was expecting to be when he came back in, as an example.

Ben Nedivi: Yes, it’s a great question. I think part of that is, yes, we did in the beginning have a set plan, we know where we want to get to. But just like the space program, you have an idea of where you want to get but the reality is very different when you start doing it. When you start doing it, it starts changing, you start seeing the performances, you start seeing the evolution of the episodes and I think we did change a lot as we went.

Getting into season 2, we really did think about that idea, because it’s ten years later. It’s not the immediate aftermath of the events at the end of season one. So especially Ed and Karen’s relationship, we wanted to show how they had moved on but then how you can never really move on. So, in many ways, the best laid plans, right? We had a plan for where we were going in many ways but as we go into it, I feel we evolved. gave ourselves the freedom to adjust, which we have to.

They always say, no plan survives contact with the enemy and time is the enemy on this one. What’s the area in the second season that you would not have anticipated going when you were working on the first year?

Wolpert: That’s an interesting question. I think it’s Tracy’s journey, because in season 1 she seems like she’s headed in such an empowering direction and getting to do everything that she wanted to do, as a character, so we really challenged ourselves. What’s interesting about someone who got everything they wanted? So, I think her journey in season two is really interesting for her character.

Nedivi: Be careful what you wish for I think is the lesson of that story.

What’s the moment that, across either season, both of you are proudest of creating?

Wolpert: I still have a soft spot in my heart for the moment when Ellen comes out to Deke in episode ten of season one. Because it felt very honest to both of those characters and I thought Jodi Balfour and Chris Bauer both played that brilliantly.

Nedivi: For me, I’d say the way I think we handled the women entering the program. There’s a version of that where everything happens and it’s so great and it’s so easy for them, it’s Utopia. But the reality? I think the way we showed it – where it was very difficult, it was very challenging. These women came from all walks of life and handled it in different ways. That I’m very proud of, the ability to tell that story in a way that felt real to people.

I think it’s something that I think really pays dividends and I think one of the exciting elements of that now is you see that a lot of these women, who were entering this program are now leaders of the program in season two. So, I think seeing that growth is one of the things I’m really proud of with the show.

 

For All Mankind season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+; season 1 is also available.