The Expanse has wrapped up its celebrated run with its sixth season which premiered in December 2021, and fans of the show are wondering if there could be a continuation of the series at some point seeing as there are three more installments in the book series that were never covered in the TV show. There has been no indication at this point from official sources that a seventh season or a sequel series could be on the horizon, but there is a possibility that the show could be expanded upon at a future date.
The Expanse had somewhat of a rough ride through the television landscape having premiered on Syfy back in 2015 as a big budget production that received plenty of accolades but that never lived up to the ratings expectations of the network. It was cancelled after three seasons, but a raucous fan campaign led to Amazon picking it up as an original for its Prime Video streaming service (helped in part by the fact that Jeff Bezos liked the show). It continued for three more seasons on that streamer but failed to draw the viewership numbers that would justify its rather large budget. The show’s sixth season was announced in advance as its last, and there has been no indication that it could return at some point despite the fact that there is more source material to cover.
The sixth season did present a logical ending point for the series because it had covered through the sixth book and the story takes a time jump of thirty years after that. The main story of the war between the Belters and the inner planets was resolved by the end of the sixth season, but there were some loose ends left hanging. A side story followed events on the planet Laconia–based on the Strange Dogs novella–and the character Admiral Duarte was introduced who plays an important part in the later books. But that was left unresolved which had to leave fans wondering why it was included in the first place.
Despite the fact that The Expanse has never drawn the high viewership numbers like other shows such as Stranger Things, The Witcher, The Mandalorian, and more, it is a highly regarded series and it is considered a top sci fi entry. The show currently holds a combined Fresh Rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes across all of its seasons along with a 92% Audience Score. And it frequently finds itself on best-of lists of sci fi TV shows. It appears to be more of a slowburn with the general audience, but this is a show that will continue to build its reputation in the years that come. And as that happens, there could be a desire to continue the story.
A television movie or two or perhaps a mini-series could show up at some point, whether based on the books or just continuing the story of the main characters (who wouldn’t want to see more adventures from the crew of the Rocinante?). A movie adaptation of Strange Dogs would certainly make sense seeing as that story was teased during the final season of the show. And perhaps somewhere down the road a sequel series could follow that picks up with the seventh book. Thirty years might be a bit much to wait on that, but maybe that happens in five to ten years?
Amazon currently holds the rights to the series, and may not have much interest in expanding on it because it fell short of viewership expectations. But those rights could lapse in a couple of years depending on what sort of deal the streamer made with the show’s production company. So if Amazon is not interested in producing a follow-up, perhaps the show could shift to a new venue. I have not seen fans trying to lobby for a seventh season of the show, but as the void grows from where it left off, perhaps people might start making noise about a revival. For now, we have six excellent seasons that mostly resolved their main storylines. But the show also opened up a whole universe of possibilities (literally) and it certainly seems like there will be a desire to explore those further at some point. The Expanse has wrapped for now, but my guess is that this one is not done yet.
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Season 6 felt like a mini-serie since it only had 6 episodes. But it was good.