Published Jun 5, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT
Carly Lane is an Atlanta-based writer and critic who has been with Collider in some form or fashion since 2021. She considers herself a television nerd, diehard romance/sci-fi/fantasy reader, and nascent horror lover. Her fondness of books is only eclipsed by the towering TBR that her shelves can’t possibly contain.
She is the author of A REGENCY GUIDE TO MODERN LIFE: 1800s ADVICE ON 21ST CENTURY LOVE, FRIENDS, FUN AND MORE, published through DK Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House) and currently available wherever books are sold.
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Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Star City Episode 3.
The very first scene of Apple TV’s Star City establishes a very different show than what For All Mankind fans are used to. Gone are the open channels of communication and clear hierarchy of power, and in their place are secrecy, surveillance, and a world where cosmonauts’ every action is being supervised. That’s not to say there are no familiar faces for viewers, though; in the very first episode, we’re introduced to younger versions of characters like Sergei Nikulov (Josef Davies), a young engineer working under the enigmatic Chief Designer (Rhys Ifans), as well as Irina Morozova (Agnes O’Casey), who joins the Star City’s surveillance department under the formidable presence of KGB head Lyudmilla Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin).
Ahead of the show’s premiere, Collider had the opportunity to speak with Star City’s co-creators and cast about some of the show’s most pivotal twists, including a reveal that adds even more intriguing dimension to For All Mankind’s most divisive character. Below, O’Casey and Martin discuss the intricacies of Irina and Lyudmilla’s complicated mentor-mentee dynamic, the one-sided intimacy of surveillance work, why Irina’s motherhood is integral to her character, and more.
**COLLIDER: With Star City being a prequel of an existing show, there are people in the cast playing versions of For All Mankind characters that fans have already come to know. Agnes, did you try to familiarize yourself with Svetlana [Efremova]’s performance, or did you steer clear just because that’s the character in such a different place in her life?
AGNES O’CASEY: I think the answer to that is a bit of both. I did watch her performance because I thought it was important to understand where she’s going, and I really enjoyed that. But then it was my job to kind of forget that completely, because we’re meeting Irina at the very beginning of who she becomes. Dramatically, that’s really exciting when you know what she turns into, but you see her as this very nervous person who’s kind of completely unsure of herself. That’s exciting.
As the polar opposite of Irina at this point, Anna, Lyudmilla is so imposing and so fascinating to watch. Do you feel that there’s anyone, either at Star City or elsewhere, who actually intimidates her?
ANNA MAXWELL MARTIN: You see Lyudmilla at the beginning, and you think she’s the boss. She’s stomping about the place. But of course, we do see her with her own boss, and that’s a really interesting dynamic when you see she doesn’t have the highest status in the room. There’s a very sneaky character that’s going to come in and try to subvert her, who’s a real little slimeball. We love him in real life.
MARTIN: But in the show… [Laughs] And that’s a brilliant power dynamic. He has no fear of her. So, of course, she has her olders and betters, of course. She’s not the top of the tree. Yeah, that’s really interesting, when we get to that stuff.
**The dynamic between these two women is so layered, and it feels like a mentor-mentee relationship is starting to develop, specifically after the interrogation scene in Episode 2, when Lyudmilla steps out of the room and Irina takes over. Anna, once Lyudmilla returns, what does that signal for her about Irina’s dedication to the role or maybe her own judgment of this young woman’s abilities? **
MARTIN: Lyudmilla is one of those people who’s never wrong, and I think if she’s had this idea that Irina will deliver, then that is what will happen, and that is what happens. She does deliver. Playing this dynamic was so interesting. They are toxic together. They are so weirdly independent and toxic, and it’s just so much fun to play a relationship like that. We really loved it. And if the show goes on, there will just be such long legs where we can take that. One day, I just want to see Lyudmilla bashed into the ground by Irina.
O’CASEY: [Laughs] That would be so sad, which would be great.
MARTIN: Great. So, there’s a pretty toxic dynamic, isn’t there, of interplay going on. But that’s great for me and Aggie to play.
Creators Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert, alongside star Rhys Ifans, break down the premiere of ‘For All Mankind’s first spin-off.
**One of the aspects of Star City that is so fascinating is the emphasis on how intimate surveillance work can become, and we see that specifically through Irina. Agnes, were you able to actually listen to any audio from the moments that Irina is supposed to be listening in on? **
O’CASEY: I love that about her storyline. That is so fun to play, because you’re right, she spends so many hours with Tanya, and she really does fall in love with her.
MARTIN: Oh, so you have a fascination with Tanya that Tanya doesn’t have that insight on you.
O’CASEY: Exactly. It’s a completely one-sided intimacy, isn’t it? It’s so weird. And we know what it is, I guess, through social media, to have a peek behind, to feel like you know someone, and that can be even more seductive than really knowing them. But in terms of what I was actually hearing, I was hearing nothing. When she’s singing, I’m imagining songs. It was a lot of an imagined world or our first AD reading the dialogue.
MARTIN: Our first AD reading — that’s a lot of acting with the first AD reading in, isn’t it?
O’CASEY: Yeah. I did a lot of that. It was a good exercise in imagination. [Laughs]
I think fans are going to be surprised and intrigued by the reveal of Irina as a young mother. The show is slowly dropping more hints about her backstory, but Agnes, how does that twist and the very difficult circumstances surrounding her pregnancy inform the decisions that she’s making at Star City? It’s not just her that she’s trying to protect; she has a daughter whom she also needs to care for.
O’CASEY: Completely. I love the way that they’ve written it, because it is sort of like a bomb waiting to go off. You’re like, “This is an unwed mother, and what does that mean?” It informed my performance a lot because, without any spoilers, what that moment is to her, she’s kind of completely shut off, completely focused on work, and being given a second chance. She’s sort of a pariah, I guess, and so it’s paramount to who Irina is, this mother.
MARTIN: It gave me anxiety, Irina being a mother, because I was thinking, “How does she have endless childcare? How come she’s staying so late at work when Lyudmilla’s staying so late at work?” How could she jet off to Paris?
O’CASEY: But there’s good childcare at Star City. [Laughs]
MARTIN: A really good babysitter. She’s got the best. Yeah, she’s got the full wraparound care.
New episodes of Star City premiere Fridays on Apple TV.
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Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert