Amazon Renews The Expanse for Sixth and Final Season

After being canceled by Syfy after three seasons and subsequently picked up by Amazon, the fan-favorite sci-fi drama The Expanse has been renewed for a sixth and final season at the streaming platform ahead of its fifth season premiere, according to Deadline.

“You can’t stop the work.”

Season 6 is a go. pic.twitter.com/ayk93DChGm

— The Expanse (@ExpanseOnPrime) November 24, 2020

The final season, which is tentatively slated for a production start date on January 20, will see most of the cast and longtime showrunner Naren Shankar return however original cast member Cas Anvar will not be coming back after having faced a number of sexual misconduct allegations this past summer.

“From the moment we committed to bringing this show to life up until this final season, we have worked tirelessly to honor the vision of the writers. We have prided ourselves on having one of the most diverse casts on television and giving a platform to stories that matter,” Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, Co-CEOs and Co-Founders of Alcon Television Group and executive producers, said in a statement “A special thanks to Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, the writers of both the books and series, and to Naren Shankar, the series showrunner and Executive Producer. It continues to be an honor and privilege to work with this team. We also would like to thank Amazon for their continuing support to help us tell this story in its fullest and to bring The Expanse to a global audience.”

The Expanse Season 5 picks up as multitudes of humans leave the solar system in search of new homes and vast fortunes on the earth-like worlds beyond the alien Ring, and a heavy price for centuries of exploitation of the Belt finally comes due and a reckoning is at hand. For the crew of the Rocinante and the leaders of the Inner Planets and the Belt, the past and present converge, bringing forth personal challenges that have wide-reaching repercussions throughout the Solar System. Amos returns to Earth to confront his past and the legacy of the life he fought to leave behind. Naomi reaches out to her estranged son in a desperate bid to save him from his father’s toxic influence. Bobbie and Alex confront the collapse of Mars as they chase a shadowy cabal with ties to terrorists and criminals. Holden wrestles with the consequences of his own past with the Protomolecule, the aliens who built it, and the mystery of what killed them. Drummer, with a new crew, fights to escape who and what she used to be. And Avasarala, refusing to be relegated to the sidelines, fights to prevent a terrorist attack unrivaled in history.

The series unfolds across a colonized galaxy 200 years in the future, when two strangers become unwittingly swept up in a vast conspiracy. It stars Steven Strait, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Dominique Tipper, Cas Anvar, Wes Chatham and Frankie Adams. Rosa Gilmore (The Handmaid’s Tale), Keon Alexander (Tyrant), Jess Salgueiro (Mouthpiece) and Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim) had joined the cast last season.

The Expanse is based on the New York Times bestselling book series by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (under the pen name James S. A. Corey) and is co-created and written by Academy Award nominees Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Children of Men). Fergus and Ostby are also executive producing alongside showrunner Naren Shankar (Almost Human, Grimm).