Prime Video’s Upcoming Sci-Fi Series Proves The Need For A Reboot Of A 6-Part Space Opera Masterpiece

Prime Video has a top-notch sci-fi series on the horizon, adapting a space opera book series by James S.A. Corey, but it will also serve as a reminder that the streamer needs to bring back one of its best TV shows of all time.

While they’re nowhere near as successful as Apple TV’s sci-fi shows, Prime Video has carved out its own little place in science fiction. Putting aside the superhero shows, which deserve their own genre, they’ve put out hidden gems like Night Sky, Upload, and The Peripheral.

They also have more sci-fi on the horizon. Blade 2099 will come out this year, expanding the genre of live-action cyberpunk on TV. Additionally, The Captive’s War adaptation, which doesn’t yet have a release date, will help revive the space opera genre.

The Captive’s War Will Be A Reminder That We Need More The Expanse

The Captive’s War could be Prime Video’s next great space opera. So far, the book series is incredible. The Mercy of Gods and Livesuit are absolutely captivating (pun intended). The characters are easy to invest in. Although the first book has a slow start, it’s clearly building towards an epic rebellion.

That being said, The Captive’s War TV show will also be a painful reminder of The Expanse, a masterpiece space opera that ended too soon. The word “masterpiece” gets thrown around quite a bit, but The Expanse is one show that truly deserves the title. The show’s impact on the audience and the sci-fi genre is ineffable.

The Expanse can only be described as lightning in a bottle.

It’s bittersweet for The Captive’s War to come to Prime Video. The book series is written by the same authors and the creative team behind The Expanse is bringing the new show to life. If they can come back together for The Captive’s War, maybe they could come back together for a revival of The Expanse.

Don’t Expect The Captive’s War To Be Like The Expanse

The Captive’s War and The Expanse book series share similar writing styles and ambiance. Plus, they both fall into the space opera subgenre, and they’re extremely character-driven stories. However, The Expanse and The Captive’s War are, by and large, two very different stories.

The Expanse focuses on human beings in our own solar system in the near future, while The Captive’s War has non-Earthly humans alongside a myriad of aliens in a very far-off galaxy in a far-off period. The former moves quickly, while the latter is a slowburn.

The characters in The Expanse are much more likable than those in The Captive’s War, although they’re both easy to invest in. The Carryx Empire feels much more dangerous than Marco Inaros, mostly because the Carryx seem completely invincible and dangerously amoral throughout the first book. All things considered, these two TV shows will feel both extremely different and mildly familiar.

A Revival Of The Expanse Is Unlikely

As much as I’d like to see more of The Expanse, a revival is unlikely. The series ended when it did for a very good reason. The Expanse TV show adapts the first six books, leaving the last three untouched. Between book six, Babylon’s Ashes, and book seven, Persepolis Rising, there’s a twenty-year time jump.

Only four years have passed since The Expanse’s finale, and the actors pretty much look the same. To revive The Expanse at this point, they would need to either artificially age up the original actors, which hasn’t looked good in past projects, or recast the characters, which would upset dedicated fans. Alternatively, they would have to adapt The Expanse: Dragon’s Tooth.

Plus, Prime Video would take a huge risk by reviving The Expanse. The show is widely considered one of the best sci-fi series of this century, and it’s often held up as the blueprint for most modern science fiction TV shows. Any one misstep could ruin its legacy.

Sadly, there’s no guarantee it would pay off. The Expanse can only be described as lightning in a bottle. It had the right producers, VFX team, showrunner, actors, budget, hype, etc. Any one piece of the puzzle is out of place, and its picture-perfect image falls apart.

Plus, there’s no guarantee that The Expanse’s revival would pull in the same audience numbers. After all, many great sci-fi shows have come out in the past four years, and viewers’ attention is fleeting. Prime Video will most likely take the safer path and not revive The Expanse.