INTERVIEW: Wrenn Schmidt & Krys Marshall talk character growth in FOR ALL MANKIND

With an exciting season already underway, For All Mankind Season 2 is focused on the drama between the US and Russia with the space drama between the two countries increasing with each passing day. We spoke with Wrenn Schmidt and Krys Marshall whose characters play major roles in the drama this season.

Wrenn Schmidt, who plays Margo Madison, a NASA engineer in Season 1, returns this season as the Director of the Johnson Space Center. We talked to Schmidt about Margo’s struggle with government bureaucracy and engaging with the Soviets and also her relationship with the now grown-up Aleida Rosales (Coral Peña).

Krys Marshall, who plays Danielle Poole, an astronaut candidate from Season 1 and a part of the Jamestown Moon Base Apollo 22 stay, wrestles with the sacrifice she took in Season 1. We talked to Marshall about Dani’s conversation with Ed (Joel Kinnaman) about her mission and gaining the position as the first Black woman commander at NASA.

For All Mankind explores what would have happened if the global space race had never ended. The series presents an aspirational world where NASA astronauts, engineers, and their families find themselves in the center of extraordinary events seen through the prism of an alternate history timeline — a world in which the USSR beats the US to the moon.

Season two of the space drama picks up a decade later in 1983. It’s the height of the Cold War and tensions between the United States and the USSR are at their peak. Ronald Reagan is President and the greater ambitions of science and space exploration are at threat of being squandered as the US and Soviets go head to head to control sites rich in resources on the moon. The Department of Defense has moved into Mission Control, and the militarization of NASA becomes central to several characters’ stories: some fight it, some use it as an opportunity to advance their own interests, and some find themselves at the height of a conflict that may lead to nuclear war.

Watch The Beat‘s exclusive chat with Schmidt and Marshall below!

The series also stars Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman, Sarah Jones, Shantel VanSanten, Jodi Balfour, Sonya Walger, Cynthy Wu, Coral Peña, and Casey W. Johnson.

Watch For All Mankind Season 2 Fridays on Apple TV+.