Ronald D. Moore, co-creator of Apple TV's For All Mankind, altered a planned Beatles reunion Easter egg in season 2 to avoid legal issues. In the show's alternate history, John Lennon survives his 1980 assassination attempt. The series features montages of altered historical events each season.
In For All Mankind, John Lennon lives past 1983 in the show's timeline. Ronald D. Moore revealed in a 2021 Inverse interview that season 2's opening montage originally planned a full Beatles reunion tour after their 1970 breakup. He decided against it, fearing lawyer calls. Moore said, 'Well, John Lennon is alive in our 1983. And at one point it wasn't just going to be John Lennon out there doing stuff. There was going to be a whole Beatles reunion tour happening. And then I just realized once that happened, I'm going to start raising flags all over the place and I'm going to be getting calls from lawyers. So, I was like, let's just do John Lennon.' Season 2 leaves Lennon's post-assassination path open-ended, but later seasons expand on it. Season 3 shows the Beatles reuniting for a tour that opens in Chicago in 1987. Season 4 depicts Lennon headlining the Super Bowl XXXVI halftime show in 2002 as a solo act. In season 5, Lennon joins Jay-Z at the 2005 Grammys, where their work on The Grey Album takes album of the year. That real-world mashup by Danger Mouse blends Jay-Z's The Black Album with the Beatles' The White Album from 2004. With season 5 wrapped, the sixth and final season promises more timeline twists.
