Apple’s new sci-fi thriller Constellation — starring Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks, and which hits the streamer on Feb. 21 — has been described in some of the early press coverage as basically Gravity-meets-Interstellar. As far as praise for a new sci-fi series goes, I’m sure most people would agree that’s a mighty big claim for a new show to make. The thing is, though, if it was debuting on any other streamer besides Apple TV+, I’d be less inclined to believe it, because the iPhone maker’s Netflix rival has gone to great lengths to distinguish itself as a home of some of the best sci-fi TV you’ll find on any streaming platform.
It’s thanks to shows like Silo, For All Mankind, Severance, and Foundation, for example, that 2023 was the year Apple TV+ evolved into a powerhouse of mind-bending sci-fi. The latter, especially, is a critically acclaimed gem hailed as the “gold standard” of sci-fi TV — and Constellation, from writer-creator Peter Harness and executive-produced by Breaking Bad’s Michelle MacLaren, looks set to be the next addition to that list.
The story: Rapace plays an astronaut named Jo, who returns to Earth after a disaster in space. To her horror, key pieces of her life seem to be missing upon her return. For example, she finds a piano in her home — in spite of the fact that she’s never played piano before. Jo and her daughter also don’t seem to have the same connection anymore, leading her daughter to lament at one point: “I just don’t feel like you’re my mum.”
Banks plays Henry, the calculating NASA leader who’s behind the disaster that Rapace’s Jo experiences in space. Banks also plays Henry’s twin brother Bud, who’s driven by his own obsessions. Apple, meanwhile, has teased that the action-packed show explores the dark edges of the human psyche, in a space adventure that’s about one woman desperately exploring the truth about the hidden history of space travel.
Release date: The first three episodes of Constellation debut on Apple TV+ on Feb. 21, followed by one episode every Wednesday thereafter (through March 27).
“We were very keen to make it authentic,” Harness said about Constellation in an interview with Inverse. The I.S.S., the reality of what it’s like up there to be an astronaut with this kind of interagency politics, and the toll that being an astronaut can have on you. We were very keen to nail those things as precisely as possible. If it’s completely grounded and believable, and your characters are believable, then you earn the permission to do something a bit weird on top of that.”
Check out a trailer for Constellation below:
