“For All Mankind” is heading to Mars by way of this year’s San Diego Comic Con (SDCC).
Between a pair of star-studded panels and an exclusive set of collectible mission patches, the Apple TV+ alternate space history series (opens in new tab) will be well represented at the four-day comic book and pop culture event beginning July 21 at the San Diego Convention Center in California.
Now in its third season, “For All Mankind” (opens in new tab) has left the moon — where the series first departed our timeline — to enter a three-way space race to Mars. The Red Planet has become the new frontier for not only the United States and Soviet Union, but also a commercial space company “with a lot to prove and even more at stake,” as a synopsis for the new season reads.
Co-creators and executive producers Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi will lead a discussion at SDCC (opens in new tab) about “The Alternate World of ‘For All Mankind.'” Joining the panel will be executive producer Maril Davis and cast members Joel Kinnaman (Ed Baldwin), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Sonya Walger (Molly Cobb), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Cynthy Wu (Kelly Baldwin), Casey Johnson (Danny Stevens), Coral Peña (Aleida Rosales) and Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison).
Moore is also scheduled to take part in a second presentation, “Storytellers of Apple TV+,” where he and other shows’ executive producers and showrunners will discuss creating the unique worlds of their respective series and share exclusive sneak peeks of upcoming episodes.
Related: A once and future Mars: Finding the space history in ‘For All Mankind’ season 3
The sessions mark the show’s first in-person appearances at the convention. The series’ cast and crew previously attended a virtual panel as part of the COVID-19 pandemic-driven San Diego Comic-Con@Home in 2020.
In addition to the Apple TV+ events, “For All Mankind” will also be found on the convention floor. Icon Heroes, a pop culture collectibles company, has announced a San Diego Comic Con-exclusive (opens in new tab) set of Season 3 mission patches, continuing its popular line of series-based embroidered emblems.
Following up on its Season 1 and Season 2 sets offered through its website (opens in new tab), Icon Heroes will debut 16 new “For All Mankind” patches at its SDCC booth (no. 3245). Featuring insignia that were created for and appear in the series, the Season 3 set not only includes the patches representing the three missions racing to Mars (NASA’s Sojourner 1, the Soviet Union’s Mars-94 and Helios Aerospace), but also other launch vehicles and locations from the show, as well as a few spacecraft that are familiar to our own timeline.
Included in the new offering are patches representing the SeaDragon heavy-lift rocket first seen in the Season 1 post-credits scene; the next-generation, nuclear-powered space shuttle Pathfinder from Season 2; two patches for the Jamestown lunar base; and emblems for the Skylab-derived MoonLab, Alverez Station lunar mining outpost and ARCOS lunar fuel depot.
There is also a patch for the fictional NASA annex to the real-life McMurdo Station in Antarctica, a location connected to one of the character’s storylines; a Mars program patch clearly inspired by the logo for NASA’s (now cancelled) Ares rocket designed by Mike Okuda (Okuda and his wife Denise serve as technical advisors for the show); an “Aurora” patch of yet unknown symbolism; and two patches for the twin Mars Exploration Rovers “Spirit” and “Opportunity” based on emblems for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s real rovers.
One additional patch represents how space history has changed as revealed in the first episode of season three. The Thomas Paine Space Telescope takes the place of the real-life James Webb Space Telescope in one of the news clips that begins the show, although the patch depicts it as the Hubble Space Telescope.
“Unfortunately there’s an inconsistency here because the patch was designed at the start of production on Season 3 (and is what was on set, if we ever see it on camera), but the [first episode] 301 montage was locked just a couple of months ago. And it was then decided that the better stand in would be Webb and not Hubble,” Patrick Wang, vice president of Icon Heroes, told collectSPACE. “They gave us the designs early on and we could update the patch later in another set, but it actually does exist on set. It might be seen on camera later this season.”
Related: Artists Redesign Apollo Mission Patches 50 Years After Moon Landings
Pricing for the patches has yet to be announced. Those attending San Diego Comic Con can purchase the set at the Icon Heroes booth (no. 3245). For those unable to go in person, the company is offering a limited pre-sale on its website (opens in new tab) beginning at noon EDT (1600 GMT) on Friday (July 8). The patches will ship after the convention, on or after July 25. (Note that the pre-orders are only open to addresses in the continental U.S.)
Seasons one and two of “For All Mankind” are available to watch now on Apple TV+ and season three premiered on June 10 with new episodes streaming every Friday through Aug. 12.
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