After Syfy dropped the sci-fi space drama, Amazon picked it back up for a fourth season amid online calls to #SaveTheExpanse. Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, co-founders and co-CEOs of Alcon Entertainment, made the news official.
We couldn’t be more excited that The Expanse is going to continue on Amazon Prime,” they said in a joint statement. “We are deeply grateful that Jeff Bezos, Jen Salke, and their team at Amazon have shown such faith in our show. We also want to thank Laura Lancaster, head of Alcon Television for her tireless efforts. We are fully aware that this wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the staggering outpouring of support from the most creative, hardest working sci-fi fans around the world. From reddit campaigns to airplanes, we say thank you. It worked!
The Amazon founder and CEO summed up the situation succinctly during an appearance at the International Space Development Conference: "The Expanse is saved." The watching crowd, which included multiple members of the show's cast, erupted with cheers immediately. link to video
Now three seasons deep (and counting, thanks to Amazon), The Expanse is based on a series of sci-fi novels by James S.A. Corey, a pen name used by co-writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. It's set in a future where our solar system has been colonized, and the splintering of humanity across different planets (and non-planets) has created a unique set of socio-political tensions. Season 3 premiered on Syfy this past April with a story that saw “Earth, Mars and The Belt at war, with each competing entity vying for control.”