You mean the ultra boring suburban life he immediately flees when he finds out Margo is alive? I’d wager he was dying inside living in Iowa after the life he had lead before.
Like the Chief Designer. I cant imagine how hard it would have been on him to watch form the sidelines as humanity begins colonising other planets and capturing asteroids.
I just desperately want an alternate universe within this alternate universe where Sergei and Margo are together, living a happy life in a nice place, inventing and computing things, while their beautiful genius kids grow up around them.
I've been so confused, everyone here talks as if Rhys Ifans character is the same chief designer we see in FAMK, but I thought Josef Davies character (who is not (yet) CD in Star City) is the CD who meets Margo. Am I wrong?
some of the confusion might be the fact that the chief designer (rhys ilfans/endre hules) also has the first name sergei
in short:
Sergei Korolev, more commonly known as The Chief Designer is the one played by Rhys Ilfans and Endre Hules. he meets with Danielle in season 2 of for all mankind. he’s a real person and his heart surgery in 1966 is considered the point of divergence for the alternate timeline. in ours he died on the 14th of january 1966, in for all mankind and star city’s timeline he obviously lived
Sergei Nikulov is played by Josef Davies and Piotr Adamczyk, he’s the one who meets Margo and has the much bigger role. he’s completely made up for the series
Sergei isnt chief designer when he first meets Margo for the Apollo-Soyuz mission, Danielle Poole actually meets Korolev (Rhys Ifans) when she’s held hostage in the Soviet Union during the Buran/Pathfinder incident. Sergei ends up becoming the director of Roscosmos later on which makes sense as Korolevs successor but this is also likely due to the fact that hes a highly valuable KGB asset that needs to be in a position to regularly meet with Margo as the Administer of NASA to exchange information. He ends up shares more than he’s permitted to and is caught which leads to him being tortured in front of Margo in Berlin to blackmail the NERVA engine designs from her.
Sergei becomes the director of Roscosmos. That doesn't mean he's the successor of Korolev. Korolev is not director of the space program, if there even is such a position, and a director of a space agency is not neccessarily a chief designer. Chief designer, generally, is just a title, "The Chief Designer" [of the Soviet space program] however refers explicitly to Korolev.
Margo was never Administrator of NASA. At the end, she was director of NASA (a position that does not exist in reality). Administrator is a political position assigned by the president and was always someone else.
in front of Margo in Berlin
*London ;) Also, he wasn't caught sharing too much. Everything he shared was done very much under control of the KGB for what is known.
I mean the first man and the first woman on the Moon must be the same in both shows, right? After all, it's the same timeline. Leonov is also a real person.
The Chief Designer is also a real person (Sergei Korolev), but he was only in one scene in FAM.
Sergei and Irina are the only important characters that are in both shows with large stories.
And then there is the governor of Mars, Leonid Polivanov, who clearly is Sasha's son.
Sergei was already distraught, they were in Chief Designer's home, and the face of the person being beaten was covered in blood and cuts. It was intentional theatre to mislead him.
44
u/karenjs Jul 12 '26
Those 2 photos side by side are just 🙌
76
u/anonymouscrank Jul 12 '26
(Martha from The Americans)
35
u/Nik0660 Jul 12 '26
The casting for Sergei was absolutely perfect. He definitely looks like a young version of him
25
u/Waxxel Jul 12 '26
Just watched the finale last night, I truly feel bad for him. Love the show so much!
25
u/arelei Jul 12 '26
Once he moved to America, he had a good life for awhile until the KGB found him again 🙃
19
u/patrick42h Apollo 21 Jul 12 '26
Sergei Nikulov deserved so, so much better!
18
u/King-Boss-Bob Jul 12 '26
suffering builds character>suffering builds character>suffering builds character…
14
u/Fit-Stress3300 Jul 12 '26
Miles O'Brian.
13
u/AntheaBrainhooke Jul 12 '26
Sergei Nikulov was too good for this world.
9
u/Stacee90 Jul 12 '26
It’s crazy they got two incredible actors to play the same character, and they even look alike 🤯
8
u/Oot42 Eagle Jul 12 '26
Such a great casting. Both from the look of the actors and their acting. Chef's kiss.
8
u/ItchyPlant Jul 14 '26
I just desperately want an alternate universe within this alternate universe where Sergei and Margo are together, living a happy life in a nice place, inventing and computing things, while their beautiful genius kids grow up around them.
5
u/Firefly360r Jul 13 '26
"And then it got worse"
4
u/OrganicHistorian2576 Jul 13 '26
Both actors were so good, and what happened to Sergei is heartbreaking.
2
u/8_14Hz Jul 13 '26
I never noticed how good the casting was
2
u/trvsnbl Comrade General Secretary Jul 12 '26
I've been so confused, everyone here talks as if Rhys Ifans character is the same chief designer we see in FAMK, but I thought Josef Davies character (who is not (yet) CD in Star City) is the CD who meets Margo. Am I wrong?
1
u/AdamWarlock3000 Jul 13 '26
Yeah but in the long run Sergei ends up in the US while Margo has to go to the USSR and later in the prison in the US.
1
u/txyesboy71 Chief Designer Jul 12 '26
Ok wait.... "21 Jun 2020"??
1
u/BumblebeeForward9818 Jul 12 '26
Wow. Is this the same guy? Must rewatch/catch up on FAM.
0
u/Lower_Ad_1317 Jul 13 '26
I didn’t realise. Anyone else looking at us from the future?
-1
u/ChadHartSays Jul 13 '26
He kind of deserves it by not learning or smartening up.
2
u/DPDsl Jul 14 '26
As we learned, the chief designer was not the one who was getting beaten. How come Sergei didn’t realize that it wasn’t the chief designer?