SDCC 2019: Inside The Expanse Press Room

The cast of The Expanse returned to its first San Diego Comic-Con since being revived by Amazon Prime Video. Season 4 left us with 1,500 portals to new habitable worlds, and Steven Strait, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham, Cas Anvar, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Frankie Adams, Naren Shankar, Ty Frank, and Daniel Abraham were on-hand to answer our burning questions.

Has the new season’s script changed between the cancellation and the subsequent revival of the show?
“Not really! As we wrap production, Ty [Frank], Daniel [Abraham] and I will sit down and talk about the plans for the next season and the next book/half-book. This process happens every year.” – Naren Shankar

“We create a document at the end of every year about what we would do next year when we are making another season. I’m always surprised by how accurate that document ends up being.” – Daniel Abraham

How has the visual treatment of this season differed from the last?
“We take a lot of pride in how this show finishes in terms of the way it looks, the sound—everything. It’s part of the experience. This year we’re doing it in HDR. If you have a 4K HDR set, it’s going to look amazing. All the effects, how incredibly detailed the Roci is, there is a lot of ‘upping the game’ across the board.”

How do you use VR on set?
“We’ve always had [a virtual reality headset]. One of our producers—his son works in VR—they set that up pretty early. It helps the directors a lot, but primarily it benefits the cinematographer: he can go into a space that hasn’t been built yet and design the lighting. Most of the lights on set are part of the set. So, letting our cinematographer Jeremy [Benning] go into VR and go, ‘Here’s where I want the lights’ and the set builders and set designers can design the sets with his lighting specifications already in there is a huge benefit.” – Ty Franck

“The technology was first used typically for features, but, like everything, it trickles down to television when it becomes a little more portable. We use it extensively.” – Naren Shankar

On Holden’s current psychological state with a phantom Miller talking to him in his head:
“The longer [Holden] is with the ‘Miller conscious’ and what that does…it normalizes [the whole situation]. The archetype I was using was a prophet. While Holden is not a prophet, the more he’s talking to ‘the burning bush’, so to speak, the more normal it becomes…but I will say, you will see him struggle.” – Steven Strait

On Wes’ difficult night shooting a certain scene:
“So, we break up into blocks, which is how we do episodes. One director would do two episodes, then another director would do the next two, and so on. So we’re starting one half of a scene in the first block and the second half of the scene in the next block. Umm…there was a big, drastic weather change in Canada, so when we got the idea to shoot this scene a certain way, with a certain attire…by the time we got to the second half of the scene…let’s just say I regretted the choices that I made on a summer night. [laughs]” – Wes Chatham

On character development this season:
“She has a very emotional storyline this time around. You’ll [still] see the badass Bobby that you know and love, but there were a few moments where we see her as a woman and not just a marine.” – Frankie Adams

“[You get to see the backstory of] a few characters when they are alone or when they are thinking. I love those shots because you see how vulnerable each and every character is, but yet at the same time, they need to take a step, they need to say something because their voice matters.” – Shohreh Aghdashloo

On racial representation in The Expanse and the genre as a whole:
“I feel a great wave of responsibility, but also I feel like I’m up for it and it’s part of the reason why I’m here doing this.” – Dominique Tipper

“You’ve got an incredibly diverse cast…and it’s never referenced in the show. There’s not one word written about our ethnicity—what planet we’re from is the big deal—but our ethnicity is irrelevant. And I don’t think that has ever been done in a show before.” – Cas Anvar

Season 4 of The Expanse premieres on Amazon Prime Video on December 13, 2019.