We were blown away by the first season of Syfy's series The Expanse, based on the rip-roaringly great novels by James S. A. Corey. So we're seriously excited that season two starts February 1, 2017, and Syfy has just dropped a new trailer. Strap yourself in, because the troubles brewing between Earth, Mars, and the Belt are exploding into something that looks like the first war between all the human worlds.

Set 200 years in the future, the series is about what happens after humans have colonized Mars and the asteroid belt (known simply as the Belt). Not surprisingly, our journey into space hasn't made humanity any more peaceful or politically astute. Earth and Mars are on the brink of war, and radicals in the Belt are protesting poor working conditions and gravity deprivation in their cheap-ass habitats on planetoid Ceres. What's so fantastic about this series are its fully imagined political worlds, whose internecine battles feel brutally realistic. It helps that the special effects are pretty damn good, too.

All our favorite characters are back: there's the once-idealistic Earther Jim Holden (Steven Strait), who accidentally witnessed a war crime in space; mysterious former engineer Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), who has joined Holden as executive officer on the ship Rocinante to seek justice; grizzled Belter Josephus Miller (Thomas Jane), a detective who sniffed out a government coverup and is now in major danger; UN Deputy Undersecretary Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), trying to figure out who would benefit from a war between Earth and Mars; and Fred Johnson (Chad Coleman), the leader of Belter radical group OPA, whose alliances are as ambiguous as his motivations.

I recommend you dive into last season for a re-watch (it's a good one for your holiday binge list) or zoom through it for the first time. It's available to stream and buy from a ton of places. If you're a fan of the book series, I've got good news. Babylon's Ashes, the sixth novel in the series, just came out.

See you in the Belt in February.

Listing image by Syfy