The Expanse just pulled a Brooklyn Nine-Nine! After being canceled at Syfy, Amazon has stepped in and picked up the sci-fi series for a fourth season.
The announcement was made by Amazon’s boss himself, Jeff Bezos, at National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles where he was an honoree. It happened an hour or so after The Expanse panel at the same event that featured executive producer and showrunner Naren Shankar and cast members Cas Anvar, Wes Chatham, and Steven Strait.
Here is what Bezos said during the event:
“I was talking to the cast half an hour ago, before the break for dinner started. I was telling them that we are working hard at Amazon to save The Expanse but it wasn’t a done deal yet. During dinner, ten minutes ago, I just got word that The Expanse is saved! The show is extraordinary and these guys are unbelievably talented.”
The cancellation decision by Syfy is said to be linked to the nature of its agreement for the series, which only gives the cable network first-run linear rights in the U.S. That puts an extraordinary amount of emphasis on live, linear viewing, which is inherently challenging for sci-fi/genre series that tend to draw the lion’s share of their audiences from digital/streaming. The series was critically acclaimed and has its fans but it’s not necessarily a strong live performer.
The talks for Amazon to pick up the series took awhile because of the complex SVOD rights. Amazon owns North American SVOD rights to The Expanse, while Netflix carries the series globally outside of North America and New Zealand.
Co-created and written by Oscar-nominated screenwriting duo Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Children of Men), the series is based on the bestselling book series by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (under the pen name James S. A. Corey). The cast includes Steven Strait, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Dominique Tipper, Cas Anvar, Wes Chatham, Frankie Adams and Thomas Jane.
