SyFy Announces Key Cast Members For "The Expanse" TV Series

You may remember that my favorite science fiction series ("The Expanse") is being adapted into a television series to air on SyFy in 2015. Season 1 of the show will be based on Book 1 of the series, titled Leviathan Wakes. The show appears to be coming together, because casting news has been coming out for months. The Expanse takes place roughly 200 years in the future and the first book is based around the adventures of the crew of The Rocinante (James Holden, Alex Kamal, Naomi Nagata and Amos) as they travel around the solar system, especially Mars, The Moon, Earth and various habitats in the Asteroid Belt. Two pivotal characters are Detective Miller, a detective whose investigation into the disappearance of the daughter of the head of a huge corporation catalyzes the plot, and Chrisjen Avasarala, an apparently minor official in the administrative body that serves as the world government of Earth who wields incredible amounts of power and is probably my overall favorite character in the series so far.

Here is what we know so far about the cast:

Holden: Steven StraitMiller: Thomas JaneAmos: Wes ChathamAlex: Cas AnvarNaomi: Dominique TipperAvasarala: Shohreh Aghdashloo

There are other characters that have been announced, like the important role of Fred Johnson who heads the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) and will be played by Chad Coleman (Tyreese from The Walking Dead). There are intense politics between the inner planets (Mars, Earth and the Moon) and the Outer Planets (usually known as The Belters) with associated cultural dynamics between people who have grown accustomed to living in space or in limited gravity (Space stations, asteroids, or the Moon) and Earth, which has a huge population and resources but increasingly limited ability to enforce its will on what it perceives as its colonies. However, Mars is almost as (militarily) powerful as Earth and is trying to enforce its will on the rest of the solar system regardless of what Earth may want. The Belters believe they are different from anyone who lives "trapped in the gravity well of a planet" and should be treated as such, the OPA is a group that is trying to advocate for Belters, often using violent means to get their point across.

And then things get really weird when an alien probe (called a "protomolecule") arrives that apparently turns any form of life into zombies. I can't wait to see how SyFy adapts the series, hopefully it will become their "Game of Thrones in Space."