The first teaser for the sixth and final season of "The Expanse" premiered at New York Comic Con on Friday (Oct. 8). And, while it doesn't give much away, it clearly shows we can expect more of the same high-quality sci-fi that we saw in the last season.
The sixth and final season of "The Expanse" begins with the solar system at war, as Marco Inaros (played by Keon Alexander) and his Free Navy continue to launch devastating asteroid attacks on Earth and Mars. As the tensions of war and shared loss threaten to pull the crew of the Rocinante apart, Chrisjen Avasarala (played by Shohreh Aghdashloo) makes a bold move and sends former Martian Marine Bobbie Draper on a secret mission that could turn the tide of the conflict. Meanwhile, in the Belt, Drummer (played by Cara Gee) and what’s left of her family are on the run after betraying Marco.
And on a distant planet beyond the Rings, a new power begins to rise.
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"We're broken," Avasarala says as we see a glimpse of New York, flooded and on fire. "Trying desperately to keep ourselves going by pretending we're not. We must remember the lives we have lost. The pain we've suffered ... because with every new attack Inaros' power grows."
This is the last season that Amazon is going to produce. It brings the audience up to date with the events in book 6, "Babylon's Ashes" by James S. A. Corey, the joint pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. The final book in the series, the ninth novel, "Leviathan Falls" is due out in November of this year. In the series, there is a 28-year gap between the events of "Babylon's Ashes" and book 7, "Persepolis Rising," so this seems like a natural break.
Whether another studio picks up the show to continue the story with the seventh book remains to be seen.
Season 6, which will consist of six episodes of unknown length, is set to premiere on Friday, Dec. 10 on Amazon Prime TV. Only the first episode will be available on this date and new installments will drop weekly until Jan. 24, 2022. This means that at the end of December/beginning of January, we will have weeks jam-packed with sci-fi with "The Book of Boba Fett" on Wednesdays, "Star Trek: Discovery" on Thursdays and "The Expanse" on Fridays. It is truly going to be a great holiday season for sci-fi fans.
The trailer was shown as part of a pre-corded virtual panel at New York Comic Con, which can be watched here. Joining Dominique Tipper (who plays Naomi Nagata) and a pair of truly magnificent earrings, was Steven Strait (who plays Jim Holden), Wes Chatham (who plays Amos Burton), Shohreh Aghdashloo (who plays Chrisjen Avasarala), Nadine Nicole (who plays Clarissa Mao), Cara Gee ( who plays Drummer), showrunner Naren Shankar and both writers and executive producers Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham.
Along with some witty banter between the cast and crew, the panel also includes a visual recap of the first five seasons. It's hard to help getting a little emotional as they talk about working closely together for the last seven years.
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When asked about whether this season feels different because it's only six episodes long, Shankar said that "six episodes to do this much material is difficult … but what I think it does give you is intensity. Every episode feels as intense as it could possibly be."
There is another "Expanse" panel at this year's New York Comic Con on Saturday, Oct. 9 with Wes Chatham and Steven Strait live on stage at 2:30 p.m. EDT (1815 GMT) on the Main Stage 1D Hall, Javits Center.
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