Last year, Syfy announced that the network would bring more science fiction back to its programming and that included several space dramas, including The Expanse, based on the James S.A. Corey book series of the same name.
Now, we have our first look at the first season of The Expanse television series, which will air in 10 episodes later this year.
The Expanse is a space opera set 200 years in the future that revolves around a missing woman and brings together a rogue ship captain and a hardboiled detective as they discover the "greatest conspiracy in human history."
The series stars Thomas Jane, who sports a fedora that might look familiar to fans of Jane's previous TV series, Prime Suspect. According to Jane, that fashion choice was deliberate: he sees The Expanse as a film noir series. But the fedora is something else, too.
"There's a story behind the fedora, which we learn later on in the season," says Jane. "But it was a touchstone to create the guy and a nod to the antecedence of his character. He wears it quite a bit."
Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Children of Men, Iron Man) wrote The Expanse and serve as the series' executive producers.
The Expanse is only one of many new science fiction programs on Syfy. Others include the new 12 Monkeys series, last year's Ascension miniseries and upcoming space drama The Killjoys. Syfy also recently announced that Jim Uhls (Fight Club) plans on adapting science fiction novel Spin into a miniseries for the network.
"The Expanse is epic in scale and scope and promises to be Syfy's most ambitious series to date," says Syfy president Dave Howe. "Bringing this coveted book franchise to television with our partners at Alcon and the Sean Daniel Co. is a giant win for Syfy, reinforcing our overall strategy to produce bold, provocative and compelling sci-fi fantasy stories."
The first book in The Expanse novel series, Leviathan Wakes, received a nomination for the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel, as well as the 2012 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Two other books, Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate, followed, with three more books, as well as five novellas, planned for the future.
