For All Mankind Season 3 Trailer: The Alternate History Space Race Heads To Mars

What if Russia beat the U.S. to the moon back in the 1960s? What if, in turn, that pivotal moment led to the Cold War heating up to the point of militarizing NASA in the 1980s and the threat of all-out nuclear disaster spilling over into space? And to keep this ripple in the time pond going, what if another decade went by and the frantic space race finally took the competing world powers all the way to the distant and dusty orb of Mars?

This thought experiment gone haywire is the focal point of "For All Mankind," the alternate-history take on America and the Soviet Union's space race to achieve dominance in the final frontier. The critically acclaimed series from Ronald D. Moore (of "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica" fame), Matt Wolpert, and Ben Nedivi is returning for its third action-packed season, and now the next jump forward in the timeline promises to bring the setting to a vastly different locale altogether — the cold, barren, and suddenly less-empty world of Mars.

We've known that the premiere date for season 3 had been slated for June of 2022, but now Apple TV+ has seen fit to give fans their most extensive look yet at what the next installment of the series has to offer. That involves, naturally, a three-way space race to Mars. Check out the new trailer below!

Us, simpletons: Obviously this trailer footage will be edited to the strains of Elton John's "Rocket Man" or David Bowie's "Starman." The much smarter and far less obvious creative minds behind "For All Mankind:" Have some "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden instead. Folks, this is why the experts are in charge and not us.

"For All Mankind" is back and grander than ever for its third season, with an added wrinkle or two. Rather than taking place on the sunbaked surface of the moon, the action has now jumped ahead another decade and moved to the distant, orange-tinged deserts of Mars. And something tells us Matt Damon won't be around to save the day this time, either. And in addition to the United States and the still-existing Soviet Union, a new rival headed by a thinly-veiled Jeff Bezos/Elon Musk-like figure by the name of Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi) has joined the stiff competition.

The 10-episode season will also star returning cast members Joel Kinnaman, Shantel VanSanten, Jodi Balfour, Sonya Walger, Krys Marshall, Cynthy Wu, Casey W. Johnson, Coral Peña, and Wrenn Schmidt. Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert serve as showrunners on the series, with its first two seasons available to stream on Apple TV+. Season 3 will debut on the streaming service June 10, 2022.

In season three, the Red Planet becomes the new frontier in the Space Race not only for the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but also an unexpected new entrant with a lot to prove and even more at stake. Our characters find themselves going head-to-head as their ambitions for Mars come into conflict and their loyalties are tested, creating a pressure cooker that builds to a climactic conclusion.