Constellation: Noomi Rapace Goes "Sad Astronaut" in New Apple Series

Apple TV+ unveiled the trailer for Constellation, their upcoming eight-part conspiracy-based psychological thriller drama series starring Noomi Rapace, who will always be The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to us but has an impressive body of work outside of mainstream Hollywood playing everything from SciFi action heroes to tragic arthouse heroines in movies as diverse as You Won't Be Alone, Lamb, and Netflix' What Happened to Monday, and Emmy Award nominee Jonathan Banks from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The action-packed space adventure will premiere globally on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, with the first three episodes, followed by one episode weekly, every Wednesday through March 27 on Apple TV+.

Created and written by Peter Harness, who worked on Wallander and the recent version of The War of the Worlds, "Constellation" stars Rapace as Jo – an astronaut who returns to Earth after a disaster in space – only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing. Don't you just hate it when that happens? Yes, the "Sad Astronaut" genre is a thing now, and this is not the first time Noomi Rapace has played one. Beats playing another woman trying to save her kidnapped kid, I suppose.

Apple wants us to know that Constellation is an "action-packed space adventure is an exploration of the dark edges of human psychology (as opposed to the bright, happy-clappy edges of human psychology), and one woman's desperate quest to expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel and recover all that she has lost. Because every woman's quest has to be desperate.

The series also stars James Julian and Barbara Sukowa and introduces Rosie Coleman and Davina Coleman as Alice. The series is directed by an impressive lineup of directors: Emmy Award winner Michelle MacLaren, who won Emmys for Breaking Bad; Oscar nominee Oliver Hirschbiegel, who made Downfall and The Experiment; and Oscar nominee Joseph Cedar, who made Footnote and Our Boys. Apple TV wants you to know this series is full of heavy hitters in front of and behind the camera.

Why do female astronauts always have to be angst-ridden about their daughters in stories written by men anyway? This is an increasingly hoary sexist cliché that Constellation is completely founded on. Women don't routinely write scripts about male astronauts being angst-ridden about their sons, but when you get a female astronaut, it's ALWAYS being angsty about her daughter! But hey, it's Noomi Rapace, so we'll watch it. And here's another thought: Apple TV now has about ten times more Science Fiction TV series than the SyFy Channel!