Expanse, The
Entry updated 23 February 2026. Tagged: TV.
US tv series (2015-2022). Penguin in a Parka, Alcon Television Group, SeanDanielCo (seasons 1-3), SyFy Network (seasons 1-3), Just So (seasons 4-6), Hivemind (seasons 4-6), Amazon Studios (seasons 4-6). Created by Mark Fergus and Hank Ostby, based on The Expanse (2011-2021) by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck writing together as James S A Corey. Various writers and directors. Cast includes Frankie Adams, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Keon Alexander, Cas Anwar, Wes Chatham, Cara Gee, Thomas Jane, Nadine Nicole, Steven Strait and Dominique Tipper. Six seasons; 62 episodes of 42-63 minutes. Colour.
In the future, humanity is split into three factions, Earth and Luna (see Moon), under one government, the United Nations; Mars, which is working towards full Terraforming of their planet, and builds a formidable military; and the Belt, a group of colonies loosely united as the Outer Planets Alliance. The Belters feel ongoing resentment at living under the suppression of the Inner Planets' rule, and exploitation of their resources, while Earth and Mars are constantly on the edge of conflict. The series focuses on a handful of characters negotiating these tensions: the idealistic James Holden (Strait) and his crew on the private ship Rocinante, who constantly find themselves in the centre of all major activity; UN Deputy Undersecretary and later Secretary General Chrisjen Avaserala (Aghdashloo), an immensely skilled, often ruthless Political schemer; Joe Miller (Jane), a detective on the Asteroid colony of Ceres; Bobbie Draper (Adams), a private in the Martian military; and Camina Drummer (Gee), a rebel Belter.
The six seasons fairly faithfully follow the plot outlines of the first six of Corey's novels, incorporating several of the shorter stories. Early seasons concern an attempt by Earth corporations and government to exploit an alien "protomolecule" to gain control of the Solar System. In season 3, the mysterious protomolecule forms a ring beyond Uranus, which gives access to thousands of potentially habitable planets elsewhere in the universe, inducing a mass exodus particularly from Mars and the Belt. The protomolecule absorbs Miller, who aids Holden in becoming the first human to travel through the ring, and gain insight into the vanished civilization which created it. Season 4 concentrates largely on Holden and his crew's attempts to quell violent dissent on a colony planet, while ruins from the old civilization appear to be reactivated; as in the novel on which it is based, Cibola Burn (2014), this story, clearly inspired by film Westerns, seems like something of an outlier in the series. Seasons 5 and 6 depict a rebellion by a Belter faction led by Marco Inaros (Alexander), who kills millions of Earthers by dropping asteroids onto the planet and draws many Belters to his cause, before being destroyed attempting to get through the ring to claim the worlds for the Belter cause and control access to them. The series was cancelled by SyFy after three seasons, the picked up by Netflix, and cancelled again after another three seasons, leaving the last three novels unfilmed.
The assumption that it is best not to mess around with good material is infrequently applied in Hollywood Cinema or Television, but was clearly the guiding principle for The Expanse. Though there are some inevitable simplifications and some rather declamatory acting, it is laudable for retaining the focus on the political manoeuvrings in its richly imagined future, for its attention to details such as the patois that develops among far flung colonies, and for the plausibility of its science. As with the novels, the intrigue of shifting factions attempting to gain control of the resources available to the various cultures is more compelling that the more generic action sequences. This catering to fan expectations led to accusations that early seasons were confusing to those unfamiliar with the books, and seasons 2 and 3 in particular do sometimes suffer from attempting to fit in too many elements from very long and complex novels. The general consensus was that The Expanse improved along the length of its run, though the final season was curtailed to only six episodes, and some of the more memorable characters in recent Space Opera are enjoyably incarnated.
The Expanse was popular with fans, winning the Hugo for best dramatic presentation, short form, in 2017, 2022 and 2023. The game The Expanse: A Telltale Series (2023) is an interactive prequel, with Cara Gee reprising her role as Drummer. The forthcoming game «The Expanse: Osiris Reborn», which trailered in 2025, will also include actors from the series. [CWa]
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