News: Amazon In Talks For The Expanse





SyFy decided to cancel one of its flagship series The Expanse, but there is still hope for the show. The series has been a critical success and has developed quite a following. Based on a series of books by Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham, The Expanse filled a void that was left by shows like Battlestar Galactica. The producers at Alcon Entertainment (the people behind the show) are in conversations with Amazon about picking up the series for Season 4. The talks are still preliminary, but there is hope.

Amazon, along with Netflix, have been the two main targets for the fans behind the #SaveTheExpanse campaign. There has been a major effort to get one of the companies to pick up the show since Syfy decided not to renew the show for a fourth season. The fan campaign has included a petition and a GoFundMe page, which was used to collect money for a #SaveTheExpanse banner to be flown over the Amazon headquarters last week.

Any deal has some complications due to complex SVOD rights. Amazon owns the North American SVOD rights to The Expanse, while Netflix carries the series globally outside of North America and New Zealand. The cancellation by Syfy was said to be at least be partially due to their 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 lSyfy generating live viewing, which is difficult for a series that tends to draw most of its audience from digital and streaming. This is the type of show that a streaming platform would look for.

But that is exactly the type of show a streaming platform would be interested in. Additionally, Amazon has been looking to beef up its portfolio of original genre drama series, so The Expanse could fit into that effort.

It is based upon a series of books written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck and is about a colonial conspiracy set in the future. It stars Steven Strait, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Dominique Tipper, Cas Anvar, Wes Chatham and Frankie Adams.