The Expanse actor Steven Strait has opened up about season 5's different structure and the track involving his character, James Holden. Created by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, The Expanse is a televised adaptation of James S. A. Corey's eponymous novel series which he first published in 2011. The show centers on an unexpected group of antiheroes as they journey together across a human-colonized solar system in the near future. The Expanse boasts an ensemble cast led by Strait, Thomas Jane, Cara Gee, Dominique Tipper, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Cas Anvar, Frankie Adams, and Wes Chatham, among others. The series began airing on Syfy in 2015, but in 2019 it switched over to Amazon for season 4. Currently, The Expanse season 5 is underway on Amazon Prime, and the show is due to conclude with its next season 6.
Over the past 4 seasons, The Expanse mostly saw its main Rocinante crew stick together through the thick and thin. But in season 5, the crew has disbanded as all the members have gone their individual ways to deal with their personal problems. Naomi (Tipper), for instance, is on asteroid Pallas to save her estranged son from his toxic father's influence, whereas Amos (Chatham) has returned to Earth to confront his past after a close friend's death. Alex (Anvar) is trying to make amends with his family on Mars, while Bobbie (Adams) and Avasarala (Aghdashloo) are investigating the trafficking of Martian weapons. Strait's Holden, meanwhile, is struggling with the repercussions of his past with the protomolecule.
Recently, during an exclusive conversation with Screen Rant, Steven Strait opened up about Holden's separation from his Rocinante crew and about the new sides of his character that the audience will get to see in season 5. Below is an excerpt from the interview.
Question: The Rocinante crew is kind of the heart of the show, and this season, you're a little bit separated from your heart. What new sides of Holden will we see in this environment?
Steven Strait: Yeah, it's a different structure this year. Having been a fan of the books, it obviously revolves around book five.
It was an interesting experience having Holden on a more lonely journey this year. I think there's an irony as well; he is the most comfortable he's ever been with the responsibilities that have been given to him as a leader, but the personal and interpersonal part of his life has the rug pulled out from under it from the very beginning. So, he's confident and capable of dealing with what he has to deal with this year, but it's hard because in the family side of the story, he worries about them and misses them and wants to get back to them.
So much transpires after they separate, and to be apart from your family in those kinds of circumstances is very difficult. There's the twin storylines of Holden going after the protomolecule and the ramifications of what that has brought, and then there's also the trying to get back to the family storyline. And both are equally as important to Holden in different ways.
The individual path that Strait's Holden has taken in season 5 has been paved by the events of the previous season. In season 4, After Miller (Jane) intermittently overcomes his protomolecule programming, Holden realizes the intensive damage that the protomolecule's technological network can bring about. Miller subsequently informs Holden about the piece of ordnance that can neutralize Ilus' protomolecule, and Holden finds that in the form of an energy circle on another structure on Ilus. However, before Holden can use the ordnance to deactivate the protomolecule, he is interrupted by Murty. But then Miller steps in and integrates with the network. The protomolecule is neutralized but at the cost of Miller's life. Miller's self-sacrifice is particularly devastating for Holden, who then decides to research how to control the protomolecule.
It is certainly a different, and at times, frustrating experience to not find the main Rocinante crew together on The Expanse. But, at the same time, the individual journeys of the characters are important as they cater to several lost arcs in the show while also explaining the motivation behind the characters' actions over the past four seasons. Miller's death in season 4 was a pivotal personal moment in Holden's life that was to inevitably define the course that he chose next. Holden's storyline has played out intriguingly in the first three episodes of season 5. And hopefully, by this season's end, Holden will be in better control of himself, and the audience will have more closure about the origins, scope, and destruction of the protomolecule.
Source: Screen Rant