The Expanse Season 5 First Look Released

Ahead of the return of The Expanse on Amazon Prime Video, a first look at the new season has arrived via Entertainment Weekly in the form of a new photo as well as an interview with series showrunner Naren Shankar. First up, the photo, which features Rocinante mechanic Amos Burton (Wes Chatham) having seen better days, and similarly less blood. We're not sure what's going on in the image but it's definitely something that has our eyebrows rasied. On the other side, Shankar has an in-depth talk about the themes of the season, how it pulls from other books in the series, and what else will go down following season four's cliff hanger.

"The theme really is about the sins of the past," Shankar said. "To one extent or another, that's every single story line, whether it is Naomi personally confronting the fact that she had a son with this very charismatic, and now quite violent, revolutionary-type leader. Whether it's Amos connecting to his past, or going back to Earth for reasons that we're not quite sure of. Whether it's Holden's past with unleashing the protomolecule. Whether it is the past geopolitical history of the Belt, and its relationship with the inner planets, which we see through Avasarala."

He continued, "That's really what the season is about. It is connecting all of the things that we have done in our lives to the moment of the present that we are in. It's like everything comes to a head all at the same time."

Season 5 of The Expanse is scheduled to premiere Wedensday, December 16 on Amazon Prime Video. Like the second season of The Boys, the series will debut its first three episodes on that date with new episodes arriving weekly after that. Here's the synopsis of the season from the streamer:

"Season five of the series picks up as multitudes of humans leave the solar system in search of new homes and vast fortunes on the earth-like worlds beyond the alien Ring, and a heavy price for centuries of exploitation of the Belt finally comes due and a reckoning is at hand. For the crew of the Rocinante and the leaders of the Inner Planets and the Belt, the past and present converge, bringing forth personal challenges that have wide-reaching repercussions throughout the Solar System. Amos (Wes Chatham) returns to Earth to confront his past and the legacy of the life he fought to leave behind. Naomi (Dominique Tipper) reaches out to her estranged son in a desperate bid to save him from his father's toxic influence. Bobbie (Frankie Adams) and Alex (Cas Anvar) confront the collapse of Mars as they chase a shadowy cabal with ties to terrorists and criminals. Holden (Steven Strait) wrestles with the consequences of his own past with the Protomolecule, the aliens who built it, and the mystery of what killed them. Drummer (Cara Gee), with a new crew, fights to escape who and what she used to be. And Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), refusing to be relegated to the sidelines, fights to prevent a terrorist attack unrivaled in history."