Earlier this month, New York Comic Con was taken over, quite literally, by The Expanse. Amazon Prime didn’t shy away from promoting their exciting new property, one that’s likely to bring in strong viewership with its established fanbase and newfound global availability.

Con-goers entering the building were greeted with massive Expanse character posters of James Holden (Steven Strait), Amos Burton (Wes Chatham), Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar), Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams), and Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Agdashloo). All were in attendance with the exception of Frankie, with Cara Gee (who plays Camina Drummer) appearing instead; Burn Gorman joined the cast for the event as well.

Just below on the show floor, Amazon built the activation experience for The Expanse. It featured a hybrid room on the Rocinante, including a galley area with the famous coffee machine and circular garden, as well as the captain’s chair – a real prop from the set! – and an interface of the Ilus surface. Upon entering, attendees received a futuristic-looking Expanse mug, and an interactive photo area was set up for fans to take pictures (or gifs) of themselves stepping onto the surface of Ilus from the Rocinante.

The activation was very popular, with people lining up to check it out throughout the weekend. It’s certainly a fantastic way to promote the series to lots of new viewers, and we enjoyed it immensely.

The con’s main event for Amazon was the world premiere of Season 4’s first episode. “New Terra” is a riveting introduction to the new act of the series, and fans walked away with a sense of excitement, anticipation, and reward as they were finally able to see a new episode of the show after working so hard to save it. Check out our review of the episode (WARNING: SPOILERS).

The screening was followed by a Q&A with the cast, including Burn Gorman – who joins the ensemble this season to play RCE Head of Security Adolphus Murtry – and showrunner Naren Shankar. The energetic line-up discussed a number of topics, including some hints from Naren about Miller, insights from the cast on the first episode, and audience questions. The panel was as fun as it was insightful, with the cast clearly excited to be all together in one place and talking about the show. Amazon kindly uploaded a video of the panel, which you can watch in full above.

The panel wrapped with the reveal of the latest official teaser trailer for Season 4 of The Expanse. Clocking in at almost two minutes, the teaser shows off Season 4 accompanied by the powerful words of John F. Kennedy’s “Moonshot” speech he gave at Rice University in 1962, when he announced the United States’ plans to land on the moon. It is clear that Amazon understands the show’s audience, and anyone with even a mild interest in space exploration should find themselves drawn to the series.

A fun video of The Expanse’s cast reacting to this teaser was also released a few days later. We hope this becomes a trend, as it is incredibly cathartic and entertaining to watch our favorite actors and actresses see their own promotion for the first time!

A limited signing event was also held on Saturday afternoon, with lucky attendees getting to shake hands with the cast and receiving signed versions of the Season 4 poster artwork. Unsigned posters were also distributed to panel attendees earlier in the day.

Finally, to top off the comic-con experience for Expanse fans, our team on site hosted a meet-up shortly after the world premiere. Screaming Firehawks met in the shadow of the appropriately space-age-looking Vessel to talk about the premiere, show off their cosplay, and take a break from the hustle and bustle of the Javits Center. There were a variety of cosplayers, from a few familiar Roci crew members and original characters, to a protomolecule-infected Belter! Once everyone was acquainted, TEL staff ran a giveaway that included a few show-used props and a copy of Tiamat’s Wrath signed by Dominique Tipper, Steven Strait, and Naren Shankar (special thanks to Amazon and Orbit Books for providing these).

The lucky winners were: Emanuel, who won Melba’s Savage Industries ID; Rochelle, who won Byers’ Canterbury ID; Azra, who won a Tycho Engineer ID; Sady, who won the copy of Tiamat’s Wrath and Amanda, who won her very own can of Roma’s chicken.

We had a wonderful time meeting these fantastic Firehawks and all the Expanse fans we came across at NYCC. We can’t wait to see you all next year for Season 5!

Yam seng,
TEL Crew