There were a lot of surprises at The Expanse panel, which made up for the fact that it was basically just a recorded Zoom call. A recap trailer of seasons 1-5 was shown off, with lots of familiar faces and moments from the series so far. But the big deal, the big news, was in three parts. One, the sixth and final season will only be six episodes long; two, they released a trailer, which you can see below; and three, the episodes will once again be released weekly.

There were also discussions of vaguely spoiler-y things for The Expanse’s sixth season, and they are discussed below—you’ve been warned.

Moderator and series star Dominique Tipper asked questions of three groups of a sort: one, the new and improved Roci crew, now including Clarissa Mao (Nadine Nicole); the second, Earth as represented by Chrisjen Avasarala’s actress Shohreh Aghdashloo; and finally, the Belters as represented by Cara Gee, who plays Camina Drummer. Lots of tantalizing tidbits were dropped. Wes Chatham, who plays Amos Burton, said that Amos will be questioning all the choices the Roci crew has made, and all the history making events they’ve been a part of. Jim Holden (Steven Strait) is going to feel a sense of distinct feeling of hopelessness at the start of the season—really, they all will.

Nicole talked about how Clarissa will be sticking close to her tribe, which just consists of Amos at this point, and Tipper said that Naomi Nagata will be going through it this season, as she deals with the fallout of the trauma of The Expanse season 5 for her, and if you’ve seen season 5, you know what she’s talking about.

Earthside, Aghdashloo talked of Avasarala recruiting as many friends…and enemies…as possible to beat Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander). This in particular makes me thrilled, because some of the series’ Earther villains were my favorite characters on the show, and also, I love a good hero/villain (or former villain) team-up. She also said that Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) will be by her side for most of the season, and that Avasarala sees Bobbie as a younger version of herself, even if Bobbie is no diplomat. For the Belters, Gee talked about how Drummer has lost a good chunk of her poly family we saw in season 5, and is, like Naomi, dealing with the result of that loss. There was also a good point made about Drummer not having absolutist beliefs, unlike Marco–she believes in freedom and independence for her people without hurling rocks at Earth.

The Expanse returns to Amazon Prime Video on December 10, 2021, and personally? I can’t wait.

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