The Expanse showrunner breaks down that major character death

The season 5 finale of The Expanse was one of the strongest episodes of the show yet, capping off a terrific season of television’s premiere sci-fi epic. Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper) was saved at the last minute from a death in the cold void of space, newly reinstated Secretary General of the United Nations Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) makes an inspiring speech, and villain Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander) takes control of the Ring. It was a great ride.

But perhaps the biggest shock (at this point we recommend you turn back if you don’t want to be exposed to SPOILERS) was the death of Rocinante pilot Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar), who dies offscreen of a stroke during the mission to rescue Naomi. That’s surprising, since the character has been around since the first episode and is still alive in the books.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Naren Shankar talked about why the writers went in this direction. “As we were drilling into season 5, really talking about the kind of story that we were telling…We started realizing we’re telling a war story that wasn’t heavy because it didn’t have consequences,” he said. “And really the way to drive those things home is when you start talking about losing characters who are important to the audience because especially in science fiction, you have this plot murmur that characters develop that you just feel, ‘Oh, they’re just never… Because they’re the heroes, nothing can happen to them.’ And so these discussions began very early in the season as we were developing the story.”

"And you think about it, and you’ve read the book, so Fred Johnson’s death is really Alex’s death. And in the books, Fred Johnson doesn’t die in what happens in Tycho Station. And so at the end of the day, this is a creative choice, and it’s really driven by the fact that, and we felt really strongly that, the story had to have some cost. And when you think about Naomi’s message that she gives to Holden from the very beginning and she’s talking about herself, right? But when Holden plays it and she’s there, it has a completely different context because of who the loss is relating to, right? And so these are hard decisions, but it gave realism and cost and a real sense of loss to this incredibly epic season. And from a dramatic perspective, it has tremendous ramifications going forward in how the loss of this very important part of the Roci crew hangs over every character in season 6."

So The Expanse killed Alex to raise the stakes of the story. That’s fair enough, although there could be something else at play: it’s no secret that, ahead of season 5, Cas Anvar was accused of sexual misconduct. The studio behind The Expanse hired a third party to do an investigation, with cast and crew members alike (including Anvar) coming out in support of it. Not long after, we heard that Anvar would not be returning for the sixth season of the show.

The implication here is that Alex was killed off because Anvar had been let go from the show. Alex’s curiously low-impact death does make it seem like it was a last-minute addition, but we can’t know for sure. EW asked Shankar directly whether the sexual misconduct allegations had anything to do with Alex’s death, and as you can see, Shankar didn’t mention them. Take that how you will.

What will happen in The Expanse season 6?

What we know for sure is that Alex won’t be in the upcoming sixth season of the show, which means the Roci is in need of a pilot — Shankar hints that the newly introduced character of Bull could fill in, although he wouldn’t commit to anything.

And the Roci crew will need all the help they can get in season 6, which looks like it’s leading to an all-out war, with the terroristic Marco in control of the Ring. “Well, what he’s done by the end of the season is more than just take a little revenge on Earth for past crimes and atrocities by hitting them with a few rocks, he’s literally taken control of Earth’s new empire,” Shankar said. “And so what we’re setting the stage for is a war story, right? Season 5 is a disaster movie, or the beginnings of the war, and 6 is the war. And that’s the war that we’ve always promised the audience from the text crawl at the beginning of episode 1 of season 1. This is like that this is a powder keg and that the solar system was at this point in history. Well, now we’re in it. And that’s going to be the story in season 6.”

And Marco isn’t the only thing the team has to worry about. In the final scene of season 5, a mysterious entity tears up a Martian vessel. What’s happening there?

“Well, it’s a huge portion of what happens later in the novels, that’s for sure,” Shankar hinted. “But it also really speaks to what Holden has been trying to keep his eye on, because it’s his connection to the protomolecule, the connection that he developed through Miller and the Ring Station and that sense that he’s always been the guy looking down the road. When he and Amos and Elvi found that artifact on Ilus, the thing that destroyed the people who created the protomolecule in the beginning of season 5, he’s talking to Fred about the potential danger from that thing. And so that’s working underneath. And so even while the entire solar system is wound up in this war, the struggle of all humanity’s sad, selfish interests, there’s a much, much bigger and scarier thing lurking underneath.”

"And that’s something that Holden has always been concerned about. And that’s really what that’s speaking to, and that’s tied up in the protomolecule. We weren’t just going to throw that away because whereas what we learned at the end of the season is that Marco was just trading this for ships and power in the solar system, that’s got some significant and severe ramifications going forward."

So people fight petty power games while an existential threat looms in the background. No wonder people call this show Game of Thrones in space.

By the way, official word is that The Expanse season 6 will be the final season of the show…on Amazon, at least. But there are a three more Expanse novels that come after that. The producers are prepared to go out with season 6, but there have also been hints they’ll try to adapt the rest of the saga too. Stay tuned.

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h/t SyFy Wire