One of the most unique and beautiful things 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, are still around in the current fifth season, set in the 2010s, and those that are probably don’t have much of that precious time left.
In fact, something regarding that happened in the latest episode of the show, titled “Home,” and we spoke to showrunners Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert about it. If you haven’t watched, please do so because below, we have major spoilers for season five, episode three of For All Mankind.
The moment in question, of course, is the death of the show’s 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.
“It 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,” Wolpert told io9. “But it did feel like, as the storytelling got on, especially with how Alex’s 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.”
Making the choice to kill the show’s main character wasn’t one the pair came to easily, though, especially because of how important Joel Kinnaman has been to For All Mankind as a whole.
“I know it felt right, but I have to say, Joel is our partner in the show and has been from the beginning,” Nedivi said. “Like, this show does not happen; I don’t think it’s 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, ‘Oh, this makes sense, and this is the proper way to go,’ it was incredibly emotional and painful for the entire crew.
“The reaction to this almost felt like this guy was really dying,” he continued. “I mean, it was really that kind of reaction from people. I’ve 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’s become such a loved presence. And so, yeah, when you’re talking Sean Kaufman… he inherited an insane legacy that, I think, even for the actors, was like, ‘Hold on a second. I just joined the show, don’t put all of this on me.’ It was kind of like what was happening on screen was also happening off-screen in a way that was fascinating.”
We also had a chance to ask Kaufman, who, it seems, is basically inheriting a lead role, about taking on the Baldwin legacy.
“It was something that I tried to internalize as any person with a legacy,” Kaufman told io9. “He’s 18 years old. He doesn’t know what Ed did, you know? He doesn’t 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’s up there knows who he is. They’ve all interacted with him. They’ve all spent time with him. He’s family. And I think that there came a certain time where I was like, ‘Oh, I have a responsibility.’ 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.”
How will Ed’s passing impact the rest of the season? You’ll have to watch and find out. For All Mankind is now on Apple TV.
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