The breadth of the Expanse
As the sci-fi series fights for its very survival, actors praise its diversity
Among the many reasons its fans are campaigning to save sci-fi series The Expanse — intelligent writing, captivating plot lines, credible science, a wealth of source material — is one that stars Shohreh Aghdashloo and Cas Anvar can get behind: the diversity of its characters.
The actors — one Iranian-born and living in the U.S., one born in Canada to Iranian parents — gave interviews to the Star before Syfy announced that it was cancelling the Toronto-shot series. Both were effusive in their praise of the show and the opportunities it has provided for actors of diverse ethnicities.
“When I was offered the role, I could not believe it: for a woman with my background, from the Middle East, and my colour and my accent to play a lead in an American TV series,” said Oscar nominee Aghdashloo, who plays Chrisjen Avasarala, a high-ranking United Nations official of Indian descent.
“My God, I just wish that one day, without having the help of my writers, I would be as powerful, as wise, as witty as she is.”
Anvar, who was born in Regina and raised in Montreal, also jumped at the chance to play his character: Alex Kamal, a fighter pilot of Pakistani descent born on Mars.
“This Game of Thrones in space ... it’s evolving into something even more.” CAS ANVAR ACTOR ON THE EXPANSE
“It just intrigued me to be able to play a character where my ethnicity is present, (where) it’s not an issue; it’s not even a point of conversation in the show,” Anvar said.
“One of the things about The Expanse I’m so proud of is the diversity of the cast.”
The series has been a particular boon for women of colour, he added. “How many shows can you say have five buttkicking, kick-ass, strong, powerful women, none of whom revolve around a man, who aren’t white? And in Season 3, by the time we’re done, we’re gonna have eight leading ladies, six out of eight of them women of colour.”
The Expanse is based on a series of novels by James S.A. Corey, the pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who have a ninth novel yet to come. It’s set 200 years in the future, a time when Earth has colonized Mars and both planets rely on resources within the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.
It’s a future, Anvar says, in which the colour of people’s skin is no longer important — although it’s no utopia. There are still divisions, but they’re based on “whether we grew up with gravity, whether we grew up in a dome, whether we grew up in zero gravity with space suits.”
In the third season, in fact — which airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Space — Mars and Earth are at war.
The series boasts a passionate fan base — including high-profile ones like Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, comedian Patton Oswalt and actor Wil Wheaton ( Star Trek: The Next Generation) — has won a Hugo Award, has been praised by the likes of the California Institute of Technology for the science in its fiction, and has a 100-per-cent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Yet that acclaim hasn’t translated into live broadcast ratings high enough for Syfy to renew the show.
Anvar is part of the online campaign to save the program, which is about halfway through its third season. He is urging fans to watch live on Wednesdays to make it more attractive either for Syfy to renew or someone else to pick up.
A change.org petition urging Netflix or Amazon to buy rights to future seasons has more than 125,310 names and counting. And production company Alcon Television Group is actively trying to find a new home for the show.
Both Anvar and Aghdashloo say the series resonates with the kind of political conflicts going on in our world today.
“You’ve got Earth, which is kind of the mother earth of the solar system. It’s overpopulated with 70 per cent unemployment,” Anvar said.
“Mars is kind of a superpower all its own (with) the most advanced technology of any other group in the system … The Belters are pretty much the working class, poor oppressed labourers getting exploited by Earth and Mars.
“They’re making alliances to try to accumulate more power and maintain the power they already have. Very little of it has to do with the welfare of the people.”
Whether or not the series survives, it has been a career highlight for both Anvar and Aghdashloo.
“This show is so rewarding,” Aghdashloo said.
It’s been “paradise” for her to play a character as smart as Chrisjen, she added. “This woman is amazing. The sky is the limit for this character.”
“We’re really lucky as a cast because we have a writing team that is so smart,” Anvar added.
And he promises that fans who stick with the rest of the season — and hopefully future seasons — will be rewarded.
“This Game of Thrones in space that has been for the past three seasons, it’s evolving into something even more. By the end of Season 3, people who haven’t read the books, you’re gonna have your minds blown as to where it’s going.
“It becomes almost a different show,” he said. “And it’s really exciting.”