For All Mankind star teases season 5's fraught Ed and Alex dynamic

Things are very different in For All Mankind season 5. A decade has passed since the Goldilocks Heist of season 4 and a new generation of characters is about to change the world.

Most prominently, Alex Poletov (now played by Sean Kaufman), grandson of Joel Kinnaman's Ed Baldwin, is finding his place as a young man - but his relationship with his grandad leaves a lot to be desired.

"It is 10 years later, so there's obviously they've talked since... when he was a kid, he helped him commit crime, like it's been a long while since then," Kaufman told Radio Times.

"But I also think, more importantly, [Alex is] a teenager now, and he's moody and he's unruly and he's like, 'Screw the system, man.'

"He's also clouded by this pressure of the name. I think, when your grandfather is one of the greatest and most influential humans ever - and he's a pioneer, literally - how do you live up to that and how do you even try to live up to that?

"I think, being 18 years old and having all this pressure, Alex is faced with this idea where he is like, 'I don't think I even want to do anything.'

"So it's a really interesting dynamic because I think Ed is trying to push Alex to be great - in a very old '80s, grumpy, racist, white man way."

This season, the alt-history space epic will see Happy Valley transformed into a thriving colony, with tensions rising between Mars and Earth. But it hasn't passed fans by that, as the first Martian-born child, Alex could be a very important figure in relations between the two planets - and in future seasons of the show.

While Kaufman doesn't know what's ahead for Alex, he explained of this season: "He's a cross section of everything. He's always in the middle of everything. He's stuck on Mars because he was born in microgravity, so his his lungs and his body can't react to Earth's gravity. He can't leave.

"And I think that forces him to be the only kid who grew up on Mars, which means everybody knows him. He's basically family to everybody who's been there. And it's this really interesting idea of like, he's kind of the first child whose home is Mars.

"But at the same time, you know, he's a Baldwin and this legacy and, he's close with, like, all these people. And I think it's just he ends up finding himself in the middle of everything all the time, especially when he doesn't want to be in the middle of everything.

"And it's that thing where he has to force himself to - for lack of a better term - be a man and grow up. There are times where I think that you can shy away from action and you can choose to stay being a kid, or you can choose action and leap forward and grow as a person and step into your role as an adult.

"I think that there's a fine line of that this season."

For All Mankind season 5 will premiere on Apple TV on Friday 27 March 2026. Seasons 1-4 are available to stream on Apple TV, sign up now with a 7-day free trial.

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