Star City is a spin-off of For All Mankind created by Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert, and Ronald D. Moore, shifting the focus from NASA to the Soviet space program. The series' title comes from the real Star City, home of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

Several main characters are recastings of figures previously introduced in For All Mankind, including Sergei Korolev (played by Endre Hules in the original series), Irina Morozova (previously Svetlana Efremova), and Anastasia Belikova (previously Rita Khrabrovitsky), now portrayed respectively by Rhys Ifans, Agnes O'Casey, and Alice Englert.

In February 2025, Solly McLeod, Agnes O'Casey, Alice Englert, Adam Nagaitis, Josef Davies and Ruby Ashbourne Serkis joined the cast, followed by Priya Kansara in July of the same year.

Filming took place in Vilnius, Lithuania, starting in February 2025, with locations including Vingis Park and Pašilaičiai standing in for the Soviet setting.

In the episode "The Eyes," Colm Feore, Chris Bauer and Dan Donohue make uncredited appearances as Wernher von Braun, Deke Slayton and Thomas O. Paine, shown in an archival NASA press conference clip from the first episode of For All Mankind's first season, which is depicted as being broadcast on Soviet television within the story.

Star City had its world premiere out of competition at the 2026 Canneseries festival before airing on Apple TV on May 29, 2026.

The series received highly positive reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting 97% positive reviews from 30 critics and an average rating of 8.4/10, while Metacritic gave it a score of 80 out of 100 based on 16 critics.