Here’s what we know about The Expanse Season 5’s release date and more.
The Expanse has proven it’s a show that will persevere. It may have a comfy home on Amazon now, but after its original network, Syfy, canceled it following Season 3, its future was much less certain. Thankfully, Season 4 streamed on Amazon Prime last year, and Season 5 is about to arrive.
The Expanse tells the story of a human society hundreds of years in the future who have expanded into outer space–further and further out, thanks to the events of the series, which sees various characters and factions fighting for survival as technology and humanity are gradually altered by an alien “protomolecule.”
That’s the most barebones description we could come up with for the series as a whole. If you haven’t watched it, we definitely recommend catching up–and meanwhile, here’s everything we know about The Expanse Season 5.
The Expanse Season 5 Release date
The first three episodes of The Expanse Season 5 are hitting Amazon Prime December 16. After that, Amazon will release new episodes weekly until February 3, 2021. That’s right, they’re adopting the same model as The Boys Season 2–because although some fans didn’t enjoy having to wait a week in between new episodes, The Boys is one of Amazon’s most successful shows, and this release model succeeded in creating week-to-week buzz.
How many episodes?
The Expanse Season 5 will be told across ten episodes. We also know their titles:
- Episode 1: Exodus
- Episode 2: Churn
- Episode 3: Mother
- Episode 4: Guagamela
- Episode 5: Down and out
- Episode 6: Tribes
- Episode 7: Oyedeng
- Episode 8: Hard Vacuum
- Episode 9: Winnipesaukee
- Episode 10: Nemesis Games
We’ll leave it to the commenters to try and glean any info from those.
Is there a trailer?
Amazon released a trailer for The Expanse Season 5 in October 2020. It has plenty of hints for the upcoming episodes, including indications that the main characters will spend much of the season off on separate missions. Frankly, the trailer is also a banger, and has our hype levels through the roof.
Plot
Here’s the official plot synopsis from Amazon:
“Season 5 of the series 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.”
Separate storylines
As we’ve noted already, the main characters have individual journeys in Season 5. Amazon shared some of the details in a recent press release: Amos will return to Earth to confront his past, Naomi will reach out to her son and try to save him from his father’s influence, Bobbie and Alex confront the collapse of Mars and chase a shadowy cabal of terrorists and criminals, Holden will deal with the protomolecule, including the aliens who built it and the mystery of what killed them, Drummer will get a new crew and try to escape her past, and Avasarala will fight to prevent a terrorist attack, despite losing her bid for reelection in Season 4.
On which books will Season 5 be based?
The Expanse is based on the series Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey, a pseudonym for collaborative authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Season 5 will certainly include plot from Nemesis Games, and fans have speculated that it will dip into the following novel, Babylon’s Ashes, as well.
Returning characters
As a show, The Expanse is always good about including its full cast of characters, even when some are less prominently featured in the book or books on which a given season happens to be based. As such, you should expect to see all the same familiar faces in Season 5: Steven Strait as Jim Holden, Cas Anvar as Alex Kamal, Dominique Tipper as Naomi Nagata, Wes Chatham as Amos Burton, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala, Frankie Adams as Bobbie Draper, Cara Gee as Drummer, Chad Coleman as Fred Johnson, and more.
What about Naomi’s son?
Season 4’s finale featured one particularly chilling scene that surely indicates Naomi’s son will play a big role going forward, so you should expect to see both Jasai Chase Owens as Filip Inaros, as well as his father, Keon Alexander as Marco Inaros, returning in Season 5.
Will Thomas Jane return?
Given the way his storyline ended in Season 4, it seems unlikely that Thomas Jane’s character Miller will appear again on the show, at least not in the same capacity as the protomolecule’s avatar. That said, Jane’s presence may still be felt on the show, since he’s directing an episode in Season 5. Good, because things just aren’t the same without Miller.
What about Season 6?
There’s already at least one report floating around on the internet that Amazon has greenlit The Expanse Season 6 internally, although that report cites no concrete sources, and the company hasn’t announced anything publicly yet. Even if that’s the case, it’s unclear when production might commence, since the COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting all aspects of the entertainment industry.
