The Expanse has lived an interesting life since its debut. The TV series started on Syfy before finding a home on Amazon’s streaming service where it just wrapped up season six. While the creators of the series don’t view the most recent season finale as a true-to-heart end, it’s been hinted that it will at least be a significant pause on the current run of The Expanse. Even with that knowledge, it’s clear that there are plans for The Expanse outside of television and streaming, as a Telltale game was announced during The Game Awards live stream.
While Telltale making The Expanse game might be concerning, the series as a whole has a lot of potential when it comes to future video games. For fans that haven’t gotten into the literature associated with The Expanse, there’s a lot that could be addressed in a game that relates to the time before the main events in the TV series. Telltale’s use of Camina Drummer’s past as a starting point sounds like it will be getting a head start when it comes to exploring those earlier years, helping to develop her character further. However, with the somewhat shaky future that The Expanse has, there could be even more potential when it comes to expanding its story by picking up where season six left off.
The Expanse's Future
Seasons five and six of The Expanse were some of the tensest since the show’s first season and also introduced some of the most significant changes the series has seen so far. While some may have understood these to be the show wrapping up, the finale of season six also leaves many important questions unanswered. Despite the reveal of the new Expanse game, its earlier place in the series' timeline will likely still leave these important questions unanswered for the time being. This is where other games could fill in the blanks or continue to move certain narratives forward instead of leaving them inconclusive.
Two of the most prominent stories relate directly to the crew of the Rocinante as well as the colony that was shown to be funding Marco Inaros’ Free Navy. The emotional toll and the impact of the Rocinante’s crew putting an end to Marco Inaros will need to be addressed if the series plans on moving forward, but the significance of this storyline might also be lost if translated to a video game instead of done in new episodes. The circumstances around some human colonies on the other side of the rings could be a stronger starting point, though, and given all the source material The Expanse has, there's a lot to work with.
Building a story around these colonies that are found beyond the ring could be a great way to further develop the massive universe The Expanse is growing into, with future games also being able to learn something from many of the Star Wars games. Its characters are already incredibly compelling with multifaceted personalities and well-developed arcs, but the universe they live in has grown exponentially. There’s a lot of unknown, and as entertaining as The Expanse has been, it’s unrealistic to expect the show’s main cast of characters to be the tool used to fill in every detail.
Given this fact and what has been shown in systems that are connected by the rings, it seems fair to say that future games should begin to explore more side stories in these locations. This could let The Expanse diversify its storytelling and also break away from the TV series’ main cast. Breaking away from the crew of the Rocinante might also allow The Expanse to further look into more of the power dynamics at play in its universe and even help the show continue alongside other Amazon series like The Boys.
Even though season six’s finale aims to smooth over part of the series’ past and equalize these power dynamics, it doesn’t seem likely that the path taken will be full-proof. The relationships between Earth, Mars, and the Belters have been rocky throughout the show’s entire run, and the colonies beyond the rings have only highlighted this. While grief, war, and peace can be unifiers for humanity, the concern of what lies ahead still needs to be tackled by the series. Fortunately, the very open-ended finale of The Expanse leaves a lot of room for video games to begin this process.
The Expanse is currently in development.