The Expanse cast celebrated their raving fans on July 20, 2019, at the 50th San Diego Comic-Con International, which was ironically the same day as the 50th Anniversary of the first moon walk, July 20,1969. Dominique Tipper (Naomi Nagata), Cas Anvar (Alex Kamal), Wes Chatham (Amos Burton) and Steven Strait (Jim Holden), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Chrisjen Avasarala), Frankie Adams (Roberta “Bobbie” W Draper), Naren Shankar (Executive Producer), and Ty Frank (Writer/Executive Producer) first thanked the fans for saving the show, released the Season 4 Trailer, and then shared behind-the-scenes stories.
The Expanse Season 4 trailer was played close to the same time that the first man walked on the moon fifty years ago, which gave everyone goosebumps. After watching exclusive content for the upcoming season, everyone learned that Season 4 will launch on 12/13/19 as an Amazon Original Series on Prime Video.
And our love for space adventure has never really stopped, especially for The Expanse fans. When the show was canceled by the Syfy Channel after three seasons, fans immediately launched a social media campaign on Twitter and Facebook asking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to renew the show.
The cast was very grateful to the fans rallying to save the show, and responded immediately. Cas Anvar, who plays Pilot Alex Tramal, tweeted @CasAnvar “mee? you guys have my jaw on the ground right now. i’m more in shock than a freshly branded donkey #KeepTheRociFlying#RenewTheExpanse.” The fans even crowd-funded a campaign to fly a plane over Amazon Studios with the banner: #SaveTheExpanse.
After being blown away by this fan campaign, the cast shared stories about how they felt when Jeff Bezos announced on May 25, 2018, at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference that Amazon Studios was saving the show.
During this lively panel, Wes Chatman confessed that “When we found out,…we were going crazy, and I was patting this guy on the back, some strangers and hugging everybody.” And then Wes realized, the guy whose back he was patting was Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (the second man to walk the moon during the Apollo 11 trip in 1969) – and he was not as excited as Wes.
And one of the many reasons the fans are so loyal is because they have astronauts and scientists as advisors to make this science fiction show as close to real life as possible.
When preparing for a scene for The Expanse, Cas Anvar explained that he wondered, “What happens to carbonated gas in a 0-G environment?” Cas then expanded that he decided to cover the top of the soda that he opened in space to avoid an explosion. And then Cas added; “Later, I asked one of our astronaut consultants what would happen.” You can watch the whole exchange and find out if Cas did the right thing in our VIDEO.
Shohreh Aghdashloo, who plays a master politician, then added, “I love to tell the stories that are meaningful, challenging, and interesting. Stories that tackle the most important issues without having to get involved with them. And sending out subliminal messages to everyone…All these powerful female roles are saying yes, what you see on the silver screen could be possible as well.”
And San Diego Comi-Con International was buzzing about this monumental moon landing anniversary. After The Expanse panel, we met a real female rocket scientist Laura from NASA in the Convention Center Hall. In sync with the 50thAnniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon, NASA gifted fans with commemorative pins, patches and posters outlining their plans to go from Moon to Mars by 2024.
On July 20, at 10:56 p.m. EST, Neil Armstrong took the first step on the moon and gave the world chills by saying, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Nineteen minutes later, Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on this historic moon walk while Michael Collins held command of the space ship.
The Expanse cast shares a similar passion for moving our space exploration curiosity forward. Dominque Tipper told the fans, “We love being together. And we’re dedicated to bringing you a show that speaks for humanity, that represents you in a way that maybe you don’t feel represented, and so we feel a responsibility. And we want it to be awesome.” And the cast is so committed to the show that they even practice scenes together every Sunday.
Tune in to The Expanse Season 4 Premiere on December 13, 2019, on Amazon Prime Video for some really cool content!
