The Expanse showrunner talks season 4 decisions, teases season 5

Barely a week has gone by since the fourth season of The Expanse  premiered on Amazon Prime, but fans already know that their favorite show has been well taken care of. While there are certainly some changes that set this season apart from the previous seasons on SyFy (like the swearing and varying episode lengths), in general, the show made a pretty smooth transition into becoming one of the prize horses in the streaming giant’s stable. Best of all, it still feels like The Expanse.

This season is based on the novel Cibola Burn, and adapting presented unique challenges. For a start, the novel focuses almost entirely on the planet of Ilus and the frontier-style battle for land and resources that’s going on there between Belters and Earthers. Several of the main characters, like Bobbie Draper, aren’t even in Cibola Burn at all. Talking with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Naren Shanker discussed the thought process behind some of the season’s biggest changes.

Be warned: there are SPOILERS below for season 4, and some light ones for season 5 as well.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Season 4 expanded the plotlines for Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and Bobbie (Frankie Adams) significantly. Avarsarala appears in only a handful of spots in Cibola Burn, so it was a no-brainer to give her a plotline — after all, you can’t have a stellar actress like Aghdashloo sitting on the sidelines for a whole season. Bobbie’s material is a modified adaptation of the Expanse novella Gods of Risk, and was included in part because it was a way for the show to finally depict what the culture was like on Mars.
• Both of these expanded plotlines serve to support to an even more important plot thread: the introduction of Marcos Inaros, who will be a major villain in season 5. Shanker made the decision to bring Inaros in early in order to better transition to the closer-to-home drama of season 5. The Expanse has a long history of toying with how seasons overlap with each other, often combining elements from multiple books into seasons or using book climaxes as mid-season reset points. The decision to fill out the plotlines for the entire cast and give more gravity to what’s coming next season is a totally understandable one. And Inaros’ actions — especially his final moments with Captain Ashford in the finale — certainly did the job of setting him up to be a real problem down the road.
• Speaking of Captain Ashford, Shanker says that part of the reason they decided to expand his role is because they “loved [actor] David Straithairn” so much. Straithairn brought out a sympathetic side of Ashford out onscreen.
• This might be the end of Miller on the show. Or it might not. Shanker was pretty good at deflecting this question.
• Amos is going to have a sizable plotline on Earth next season.
• Earth is in for a nasty surprise next season, as this one ended with the shocking twist of Marcos Inaros using stolen Martian stealth tech to launch an undetectable asteroid at the planet.

Shanker’s bold choices in condensing and expanding plotlines are in keeping with how The Expanse has always told its story, and it worked brilliantly in season 4. With filming already started for season five, the wait should be shorter before we find out what next awaits the crew of the Rocinante.

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