For All Mankind's Newest Characters Are In It For The Long Haul
Costa Ronin and Mireille Enos are looking to the future.
Part of what makes For All Mankind such a compelling show is also its greatest risk. Although not technically an anthology show, each season has a kind of anthology feeling because we’re always in a new decade. The alternate 2012 of For All Mankind Season 5 is also the most different-feeling season yet, partly because so many of the original characters are gone, either because they're deceased or because new characters have stepped up. But the secret weapon of the show is that seemingly innocuous new characters wield a surprising amount of power. Take Costa Ronin and Miereille Enos, two brand-new characters in Season 5 who may have a much bigger influence on the show’s overall arc.
Inverse recently caught up with Costa Ronin, who plays the Soviet Governor of Mars, Leonid Polivanov, and Mireille Enos, who plays local Mars cop, Celia Boyd. And what they each revealed was that these folks probably aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Spoilers ahead covering For All Mankind Season 5, Episodes 1-7.
In “The Sirens of Titan,” a huge portion of what we’re worried about has to do with Kelly Baldwin’s (Cynthy Wu) mission to that titular moon of Saturn. But, back at Happy Valley, on Mars, Celia (Enos), a former Mars “Peacekeeper” (read: cop), has joined forces with the Free Mars rebellion after discovering corruption among her own people. At the same time, the Marsies are holding Leonid Polivanov (Ronin) hostage, as he was part of the cover-up to introduce automation of Mars, putting various workers out of a job. So, Celia is good, and Polivanov is bad, right? It might not be that simple.
Costa Ronin as Polivanov and Svetlana Efremova as Irina Morozova in 'For All Mankind' Season 5.
“I see his point. I see his point of view,” Ronin tells Inverse. “Whether or not that point of view aligns with the show's point of view, we still see where he is coming from. And that’s what this whole show is all about.”
With the current Mars standoff in For All Mankind, there aren’t any easy analogies or simple narratives. The Marsies are putting the Titan mission in jeopardy, and Celia, despite being an idealist, is still a cop. She may not be ready to put someone like Polivanov back in power, but she also points out that the nature of the characters doesn’t come from a ready-made template.
“Celia is just trying to hide under a rock,” Enos points out. “She's pivotal by accident. She's not trying to be a hero. She just wants to hide on Mars and have everybody leave her alone. But she has this dog-gone moral compass that just keeps making her open her mouth.”
This kind of tricky hero’s journey happens a lot in For All Mankind, characters actively resist an obvious call to adventure, or an unexpected event puts them on a different path. Nobody watching Season 2 would have assumed Kelly would end up heading to Titan in Season 5, nor would they assume that Margo (Wrenn Schmidt) would be in prison. We can see Polivanov is being aided by former KGB and Roscosmos operative Irina Morozova (Svetlana Efremova), a ruthless character who manipulated Margo and several events in Season 4. And yet, now with the spinoff series Star City coming on May 29, Irina’s origin will paint her origins in an entirely new light. No one you see in For All Mankind will end up where you expect, and where they started is sometimes surprising, too.
Mireille Enos says that Celia Boyd will return in For All Mankind Season 6.
“I love that element of this show, the fact that it's sort of a saga,” Ronin says. “Usually when we watch a film, we'll watch a show, a play, we see the characters make a decision, they do something, and that's kind of like it. In this show, we’re fortunate enough to see them actually living with those actions, 10, 20 years down the track.”
This statement makes it clear that although Polivanov is a controversial Mars governor right now, his story will likely continue into For All Mankind Season 6, which will bring the series up to the present day, and possibly, beyond. Eros points out that because she has worked with Joel Kinnaman before, she was disappointed she didn’t get to share screentime with him in For All Mankind. But she says that watching his journey on this show inspired her and that she’s excited to continue the journey.
“I'm not going to tell you anything about season six, but just that we are shooting that now, and just the jump is 10 years,” Eros says. “Seeing where [the showrunners] decided to put Celia next is so interesting. And the fact that you have a decade in between as human beings, we can evolve so much in a decade, God. I would love to keep exploring this character. I would love to do that as many times as they want me to.”
