The Expanse Season 4 Gallery 28 IMAGES

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Today, IGN can exclusively debut the first look at Season 4 of The Expanse, with all-new character photos, locations, and a poster featuring the main cast. You can check out the images in the gallery below:"Season 3 left off with the Protomolecule forming the Ring Gate in the outer reaches of Earth’s solar system. In Season 4, by using the Ring Gate, humanity now has access to thousands of Earth-like planets — and Ilus is the first one to be explored. Much of the conflict in the first 3 seasons has been between the warring nations of Earth, Mars and the Belt, in Season 4, the existence of habitable planets on the other side of the Ring Gate creates a land rush. However, these early explorers don’t understand these new worlds and are not prepared for the dangers that await them," according to a synopsis from Amazon.Season 4 is based on Cibola Burn - Book 4 in The Expanse novels - written by James S.A. Corey (co-authors Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham). We spoke to showrunner Naren Shankar about how the series will be impacted now that it's on Amazon instead of Syfy. "In a word: freedom," Shankar told IGN. "We’re no longer bound by the archaic content, language, and runtime restrictions you’re constantly forced to deal with on broadcast and basic cable... The shows on Amazon Prime speak for themselves: this is a platform that values complex, layered storytelling, and we’re thrilled to be on it — it’s the perfect home for The Expanse."

Cibola Burn (Book 4) Insights

If you look closely at the pictures, you'll notice that James Holden (Steven Strait) and Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper) are embracing each other on the planet Ilus. In the books, Naomi spends a good chunk of her time on the Roci, while Holden and Amos deal with the situation on the ground. "Certain storylines in that novel were focused on characters other than the Roci crew," Shankar explained, "but when we started working on the adaptation for Season 4, we realized we had an opportunity to tell a critical storyline about Belters’ ability to live in (what we would call) 'normal' gravity through Naomi and Alex—it’s deeply moving and connects them in a way we haven’t seen before. And who said we keep them planetside…?"

Stay tuned to IGN throughout San Diego Comic-Con 2019 for more on The Expanse and all your other favorite shows and movie franchises. Keep up to date with the latest news with our Comic-Con news hub and tune into our live stream beginning Thursday on IGN.com.David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He's also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter