{"id":595237,"date":"2026-04-10T17:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T17:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595237\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T17:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T17:45:11","slug":"for-all-mankind-just-had-its-biggest-moment-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595237\/","title":{"rendered":"‘For All Mankind’ Just Had Its Biggest Moment Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most unique and beautiful things<\/a> on For All Mankind is the way it treats time. Time passes in huge chunks, allowing the characters to live, love, make mistakes, age, and, eventually, pass on. Very few characters from the first season, which was set in the late 1960s<\/a>, are still around in the current fifth season<\/a>, set in the 2010s, and those that are probably don\u2019t have much of that precious time left.<\/p>\n

In fact, something regarding that happened in the latest episode of the show, titled \u201cHome,\u201d and we spoke to showrunners Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert<\/a> about it. If you haven\u2019t watched, please do so because below, we have major spoilers for season five, episode three of For All Mankind.<\/p>\n

\"Io9<\/p>\n

The moment in question, of course, is the death of the show\u2019s star for the past five seasons, Ed Baldwin, played by Joel Kinnaman. Ed has been the main character on the show since day one, and that continued in season five. Now in his 80s, Ed lives on Mars along with his daughter, Kelly (Cynthy Wu), and teenage grandson, Alex (Sean Kaufman). That was just kind of the plan at the start for Nedivi and Wolpert. There was never a set-in-stone mandate for Ed to die in season five. But, as they started to write it, they realized the time was right.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt to us that while he still had an ounce of life in him, Ed Baldwin would insist on being in the mix and being a part of things and damn anybody who says otherwise,\u201d Wolpert told io9. \u201cBut it did feel like, as the storytelling got on, especially with how Alex\u2019s story was also progressing and Alex trying to find himself, having his kind of guiding light, that kind of mentor figure of his grandfather go away in the beginning of that journey for him, felt like the right evolution of the show. And we really are happy with how it turned out just because it felt like for Ed, the expected way to go is to die in some sort of a space explosion or a dramatic thing, but to tell the quiet story of someone passing away, vulnerable and just dealing with mortality, that felt like the most kind of challenging death for that character actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ForJoel Kinnaman and Cynthy Wu on For All Mankind. \u2013 Apple TV <\/p>\n

Making the choice to kill the show\u2019s main character wasn\u2019t one the pair came to easily, though, especially because of how important Joel Kinnaman has been to For All Mankind as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it felt right, but I have to say, Joel is our partner in the show and has been from the beginning,\u201d Nedivi said. \u201cLike, this show does not happen; I don\u2019t think it\u2019s greenlit without Joel Kinnaman in it. And so you fall in love with the character, of course, as everyone seems to have, but also with the guy playing him. So I think for us, as much as we thought, \u2018Oh, this makes sense, and this is the proper way to go,\u2019 it was incredibly emotional and painful for the entire crew.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reaction to this almost felt like this guy was really dying,\u201d he continued. \u201cI mean, it was really that kind of reaction from people. I\u2019ve never experienced it. It went on for weeks. Almost every scene he was in, everyone wanted to be there. The crew wanted to experience it with Joel. He\u2019s become such a loved presence. And so, yeah, when you\u2019re talking Sean Kaufman\u2026 he inherited an insane legacy that, I think, even for the actors, was like, \u2018Hold on a second. I just joined the show, don\u2019t put all of this on me.\u2019 It was kind of like what was happening on screen was also happening off-screen in a way that was fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ForImage: Apple TV <\/p>\n

We also had a chance to ask Kaufman, who, it seems, is basically inheriting a lead role, about taking on the Baldwin legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something that I tried to internalize as any person with a legacy,\u201d Kaufman told io9. \u201cHe\u2019s 18 years old. He doesn\u2019t know what Ed did, you know? He doesn\u2019t know what Ed did with most of his life. All he knows is the name Baldwin and the way that other people treat him. So I think I really tried to internalize walking around the base and making it really feel like home. It is his home, but also the way people come up to him and treat him. Matt and Ben made a point where every single person who\u2019s up there knows who he is. They\u2019ve all interacted with him. They\u2019ve all spent time with him. He\u2019s family. And I think that there came a certain time where I was like, \u2018Oh, I have a responsibility.\u2019 Being a Baldwin is having a responsibility to everybody. And not just the name. And I think that something that Alex goes through a lot in this season is like, really struggling with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

How will Ed\u2019s passing impact the rest of the season? You\u2019ll have to watch and find out. For All Mankind is now on Apple TV.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most unique and beautiful things on For All Mankind is the way it treats time.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[15915,49,48,75,199242,74560,215395,348],"class_list":{"0":"post-595237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-apple-tv","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-for-all-mankind","13":"tag-joel-kinnaman","14":"tag-sean-kaufman","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}