‘The Expanse’ May Get A 4th Season On Amazon
Here’s some potentially good news to brighten your Tuesday. Epic sci-fi drama ‘The Expanse‘ *may* have found a new home on Amazon Prime according to THR.
The cancellation came due to the rights agreement Syfy has with Alcon, the creators of the show. Syfy only had first-run linear rights to the series, meaning they really needed the live viewing numbers to be high for it to work for them. For a sci-fi genre series, that is a very tough proposition as us geeks tend to watch via catch up and streaming. Whilst the show landed a lot of critical praise and love from fans, because of their broadcasting deal, the numbers just didn’t add up for Syfy.
Now reports are saying that Alcon, who produce and fund the series, are close to a deal with Amazon to take on the show. It’s fairly well known Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is a massive sci-fi geek and was a huge fan of the show, along with the James S. A. Corey book series it is based on. It’s also the sort of series that also fits into Amazon’s push towards epic drama which led them to pick up a ‘Lord Of The Rings’ series, an adaptation of William Gibson’s ‘The Peripheral’ from the creators of ‘Westworld’, and an adaptation of Iain M. Banks ‘Culture’ novels.
What is going to be interesting is what happens to the series internationally. Amazon had the streaming rights to seasons 1-3 in the US, however, internationally, the streaming rights sit with Netflix. I can’t imagine Amazon would be keen to let them keep those rights should they wish to pick up the show for season 4. We would expect the entire series would move over on to Amazon Prime Video, should the deal go through.
Set hundreds of years in the future, ‘The Expanse’ is set in a time when humans have colonized the solar system, with the U.N. controlling Earth, and Mars becoming an independent military power. The planets rely on the resources of the Asteroid Belt, where air and water are more precious than gold. For decades, tensions have been rising between these 3 places. Earth, Mars and the Belt are now on the brink of war… And all it will take is a single spark.
We should reiterate, this is NOT a done deal yet, but it is looking promising. We’ll update you when we hear more.
