Amazon continues sci-fi series The Expanse after fan action

The science fiction series The Expanse is getting a fourth season. Fans were disappointed after SyFy, responsible for the previous three seasons, announced that it was ending the series. Amazon is now taking care of The Expanse.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced this at the International Space Development Conference last weekend, Fortune reports, among others. SyFy owns the rights to The Expanse, but announced it would end the series in mid-May. Despite its popularity, the SyFy series didn’t bring in enough money, probably because the TV network only had the rights to the first linear TV broadcast. The series probably had significantly more viewers via streaming.

Fans of the series took action on social media to save the series. For example, the Flemish Vincent Buyssens started a petition, which has been signed almost 140,000 times. They also raised money to fly a plane with a “Save The Expanse” banner over Amazon headquarters, Newsweek writes, hoping to prod Bezos to take over the series. The series’ producer, Alcon Television Group, was already in talks with Amazon.

The Expanse is set two hundred years in the future, a period in which the solar system has been colonized and in which three factions, Earth, Mars and ‘The Belt’ have ruled and closed a fragile truce.