Shohreh Aghdashloo, who stars as Chrisjen Avasarala in The Expanse, recently revealed confirmed the series finished shooting season 5 before the coronavirus shutdowns began. The sci-fi show explores the adventures of those living in a solar system taken over by humans. It has a large cast of characters, with many new ones introduced each season. The Expanse is based on the popular and fairly recent novel series by James S. A. Corey. It consists of eight already released novels, as well as several novellas and short stories. The series is actually the brainchild of two different authors, Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham, who write under one name.

The Expanse TV show aired its first three seasons on Syfy but was cancelled in May 2018. Luckily, Amazon Prime Video swooped in to save the series following a fan campaign, picking it up for season 4 later that month. The fourth season consisted of 10 episodes and dropped December 2019. Fans also went into season 4 knowing it wouldn't be the end of The Expanse, as Amazon renewed the series for season 5 before the fourth even aired. The fifth season doesn't yet have a release date.

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However, Aghdashloo had some good news for fans earlier this week, confirming The Expanse was able to complete filming on the upcoming season before the coronavirus shuttered productions across the world. Aghdashloo shared the news on Twitter, along with a thank you to Zoom for helping her interact with cast mates during the lockdown. She also used the #ScreamingFirehawks hashtag, a reference to the series. Take a look at Aghdashloo's post below:

This information about season 5 means The Expanse is better off than some series that had to cut their seasons short by a few episodes. As the network TV season was close to the end of its usual filming time, shows like Grey's Anatomy and the Arrowverse series on The CW have been forced to end with episodes not intended to serve as finales. The production shutdowns were even more problematic for series such as Supernatural and Empire, both of which were in their final seasons. Luckily, cast and creatives from both of those shows are either planning a proper farewell for later, or are at least hopeful they may be able to do one. With no timeline yet on when TV shows and movies may be able to resume production, it's hard to know when scripted shows will be back in full force.

Fans of The Expanse should be relieved by this confirmation about season 5, as it means the show is one step closer to a release date announcement. The coronavirus could still have an impact on post-production. However, some series have been able to work around that by having production members work from home. On others, like The Walking Dead, this hasn't been possible. At the very least, fans now know filming on The Expanse wasn't affected by the ongoing pandemic.

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Source: Shohreh Aghdashloo