While it’s a shame that The Expanse’s upcoming sixth season will be its last (at least for now), the new trailer for the final six episodes shows that the sci-fi drama is going out with a bang.
When newly reinstated Secretary General Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) sends Bobbi Draper (Frankie Adams) to the Rocinante to recruit Holden’s (Steven Strait) crew for a new mission, they’re once again thrown onto the frontlines in the war against Marcos (Keon Alexander) and his Free Navy. But weary after spending years fighting for humanity and still processing the grief over Alex’s (Cas Anvar) death, the beautiful bond the Roci family has built threatens to crumble under the compounding weights of their pasts and obligations to humanity’s future.
Making matters worse is that Marcos’ army isn’t the only thing the Roci crew will have to contend with. The vicious aliens that exterminated the Ring Builders pose an increasing threat after obliterating a passing ship in the season 5 finale, calling into question the safety of the Ring Gates. However, the added danger that comes with traveling through the Ring makes it more difficult for those in Sol system to interfere with whatever Admiral Duarte has planned now that he has obtained the protomolecule sample. (We’re guessing it’s nothing good!)
The Expanse season 6 will adapt the sixth novel in James S.A. Corey’s series, Babylon’s Ashes, as well as the novella Strange Dogs, which follows a young Laconian girl who comes into contact with a pack of “dogs” that possess unsettling abilities. The trailer gives us our first glimpse of this creatures and leaves us wondering how they might be connected to whatever nefarious plans Duarte is cooking up. But perhaps the bigger question is how the Prime Video series will adapt both works into only a six-episode season.
“Six episodes to do this much material is difficult,” showrunner Naren Shankar said earlier this year at a New York Comic Con panel. “What it does give you is intensity. Every episode feels as intense as it could possibly be. You never feel like you’re letting your foot off the gas pedal. By the time you get to the end, it feels cathartic.”
The Expanse returns on Friday, Dec. 10, with new episodes releasing weekly on Prime Video.
