It’s hardly been two months since season 4 of The Expanse blasted onto Amazon Prime, and the good word is already coming through that season 5 has just about wrapped filming.
First of all, we have plenty of images from the wrap party, many of them courtesy of makeup department head Brian Hui:
Wrap party realness! @ExpanseOnPrime pic.twitter.com/UoSoUymhTS
— Brian Hui (@BriBriGuy23) February 9, 2020
My captain! My captain! Hanging with Steven Strait at the wrap party! @ExpanseOnPrime #TheExpanse pic.twitter.com/Rga0nBejEU
— Brian Hui (@BriBriGuy23) February 10, 2020
At last night's Expanse wrap up party 🎉 with my beautiful Expanse family. Keon Alexander, Frankie Adams, Dominique Tipper, Jenn Brown, Cas Anvar, celebrating shooting season five.
— Shohreh Aghdashloo (@SAghdashloo) February 9, 2020
Thanks to @AlconEnt and @PrimeVideo 🙏❤️#TheExpanse #ScreamingFirehawks pic.twitter.com/IXPA6lQjGG
In fact, Hui is a font of fantastic images pretty much round the clock:
Oh the shenanigans we get up to in the hair/makeup trailer! @ExpanseOnPrime #TheExpanse pic.twitter.com/NF0onR487L
— Brian Hui (@BriBriGuy23) February 11, 2020
Holden, wondering if he can book a spa day on Ilus... @ExpanseOnPrime #TheExpanse pic.twitter.com/tbSqVGftwx
— Brian Hui (@BriBriGuy23) February 7, 2020
When Holden awakes the protomolecule we need #KyleGlencross to create a Lichtenberg scar! @ExpanseOnPrime #TheExpanse pic.twitter.com/hpcG91FvPq
— Brian Hui (@BriBriGuy23) January 22, 2020
Beyond that, confirmations that work on the season is nearing completion have begun to trickle in:
Final Roci crew on set lunch for #TheExpanse Season 5 Production. We are nearing the end of another amazing season. @Mi55Tipper @ffrankieadams @weschatham @Casanvar pic.twitter.com/U326F3F0XF
— Breck Eisner (@Breck_Eisner) February 15, 2020
that’s a wrap on Marco as we complete shooting Season 5 of @ExpanseOnPrime !
— Keon Alexander (@keonmalexander) February 10, 2020
will post Behind the Scenes gems on Instagram as I excavate them.
you are in for a ride 🛸#TheExpanse#ScreamingFirehawks#xoMarco pic.twitter.com/4W6eqt8ZuJ
We’ll miss you!! 😭❤️😭 #TheExpanse https://t.co/QDDX6dodzh
— The Expanse Writers (@TheExpanseVerse) February 10, 2020
At this point, the team seems to be in the editing bay, and we’re getting lots of good signs. For example, check out how excited James S.A. Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, the authors of the Expanse books) are about one particular upcoming episode:
We're wrapping up shooting season 5 of #TheExpanse .
— James S.A. Corey (@JamesSACorey) February 13, 2020
I just watched the 508 Director's Cut. And I just realized we made a huge mistake. We didn't title episode 508 "Holy Shit Naomi Nagata is the Biggest Badass in Space."
God damn, you guys. I mean, God Damn.@Mi55Tipper
What sort of awesomeness might the authors be referring to here? There are certainly plenty of clues from season 4 to draw from. While the lion’s share of the fourth season was adapted from Cibola Burn, the book that details the Roci crew’s adventure on the frontier planet Ilus, the show also brought in some extra elements to set up where they were going next. There are slight SPOILERS ahead, so take cover if you haven’t seen the last season yet.
Image:
The Expanse
/Amazon
The most telling clue was the inclusion of Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander), Naomi Nagata’s OPA pirate ex-lover, and the father of her son Filip (Jasai Chase Owens). Marco and Filip are integral parts of the fifth Expanse novel, Nemesis Games. Without going too deep into spoiler-ville, the main thing is that season 5 is going to be coming back to our solar system, with a strong focus on how the land rush for new planets through the Ring Gate is effecting the status quo between Earth, Mars and the Belt.
Season 4 ended with Marco revealing his plan to attack Earth with asteroids shielded by Martian stealth tech, which is bad for basically everyone. Nemesis Games has been hailed as “James S.A. Corey’s Empire Strikes Back,” and is widely considered a fan favorite, so the chances are good that the drama is going to be high next season.
No release date has been announced for season 5, but given how quickly filming is wrapping up, it seems safe to stay hopeful for a late 2020 release.
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