Danny Stevens was left on Mars near a neglected North Korean spaceship at the end of the third season, and the production team did not show what happened after that. Thus, the fans were waiting for the fourth season to get answered.
Danny is a scandalous character on For All Mankind, and some viewers hate him, though the viewers and the showrunners have different narratives about the reason for hatred. The sci-fi series shows an eight-year leap from the previous season, though the fourth season started within a year of the previous end.
The premier of the fourth season reveals that Danny retired from NASA between 1997 and 2003. Moreover, he remains absent from his daughter’s birthday party. On the other hand, a new character named Miles hunts for a job opportunity on Mars.
What Happened To Danny Stevens For All Mankind?
The creator and executive producer of For All Mankind, Matt Wolpert, spoke to TV Line and informed that Danny Stevens will not appear regularly from the fourth season (Spoiler). According to him, the series has many characters, and some characters’ stories went too far.
Wolpert feels the story must evolve. For instance, Danny’s parents appeared in the first season. His student life at the Naval Academy was highlighted in the second season, and the third season was about his heroic missions and love life.
Danny was alive at the end of the third season, and Wolpert wanted to bring him in the fourth season, too, but it did not make sense looking at the bigger picture. The nature of the series is to keep evolving. So, Wolpert found it the right time to fade the character in the fourth season to make it look like a generational story.
The cast and crew members get attached like a family. Moreover, the series provides them with bread and butter. So, informing Casey W. Johnson (who played Danny Stevens) about his termination was difficult for Wolpert, but he had to do it.
Fortunately, Johnson embraced professionalism and understood the point. He cooperated with them and went through the bittersweet experience. Some characters in the series have a longer arc, while some do not. The showrunners will bring new characters with the termination of older ones.
The fourth season will answer what happened to Danny Stevens on Mars. Did he die near the abandoned spacecraft? Did he return to Earth somehow?
Reaction To Danny’s Exit From For All Mankind
Everything was fine in the beginning. However, people started hating Danny as the series progressed because he troubled other characters. For instance, he cheated on his wife, became a drug addict, argued with his commander (Ed), got arrested, and many astronauts died on Mars due to his fault.
Thus, people were suspicious whether Danny got removed from the series due to viewers’ growing hatred toward him. However, Ben Nedivi, the co-creator of For All Mankind, informed TV Line that he cannot always change the storyline according to the viewers’ point of view.
Nedivi thinks Johnson’s shortcomings in portraying the character contributed to people’s hatred. Moreover, new characters will fit into the series only if the older ones make room for them.
According to Nedivi, he concluded by looking at the story’s potential. Danny’s arc ended, and the character could not contribute to the bigger picture. However, he would love to collaborate with him on another project.
Here is a spoiler. Danny’s arc might have ended, but the showrunners did not share his death news. So, the character might not have died and might appear in the series someday.
All About Danny Stevens
Daniel Gordon Stevens was born to Gordon and Tracy Stevens on 10 November 1963. He has a brother, Jimmy Stevens, and a step-father, Sam Cleveland. He met, dated, and engaged to Amber in 1990 and married in 1992.
Danny is an astronaut who worked for Outpost Tavern, NASA, and Helios Aerospace. Jason David played the character for the first five episodes of the first season, and Mason Thames played it from the sixth episode. Casey W. Johnson joined the series as Danny in the second season.
Danny steals and abuses oxycodone while being on Mars, which, while mixed with another medicine, turns into drugs. His anger gets out of control when he gets addicted to these drugs. Thus, his commander, Ed Baldwin, demotes him and throws him out of the mission. His mission fails, which costs the lives of several astronauts.
