The Rocinante will glide on.
Jeff Bezos is so happy about Amazon Prime picking up The Expanse, the widely praised sci-fi show based on the James S. A. Corey book series, he announced it from the stage at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles last night (May 26).
The Amazon CEO, appearing with GeekWire’s aerospace and science editor Alan Boyle for an awards-dinner chat at the conference, put off a conversation starter on the future of the space industry to get to more vital matters.
“Before I answer that question, I want to do one small thing,” he said. “Does anybody here in this audience watch a TV show called The Expanse?”
The crowd, which included Expanse actors and its show runner, erupted, Boyle reports.
“The Rocinante is safe,” said Bezos, who is also the founder of space company Blue Origin, in a nod to the series’ spaceship star.
“I was talking to the cast…right before dinner started,” Bezos said. “I was telling them we were working hard at Amazon to save The Expanse, but it wasn’t a done deal yet. And during dinner, ten minutes ago, I just got word that ‘The Expanse’ is saved.”
This means Amazon’s streaming-video service has officially picked up the show for a fourth season after Syfy dropped it last week. Alcon Entertainment expressed its joy in a release from co-CEOs Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson:
We couldn’t be more excited that THE EXPANSE is going to continue on Amazon Prime! We are deeply grateful that Jeff Bezos, Jen Salke, and their team at Amazon have shown such faith in our show. We also want to thank Laura Lancaster, head of Alcon Television for her tireless efforts. We are fully aware that this wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the staggering outpouring of support from the most creative, hardest working sci-fi fans around the world. From reddit campaigns to airplanes, we say thank you. It worked!
As Quartz’s Ashley Rodriguez has noted, The Expanse had 100% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes for its third season. And Bezos was said to have wanted The Expanse to be an Amazon project all along, according to The Hollywood Reporter.