Buried in Deadline’s November 2020 announcement that The Expanse has been renewed for a sixth (yay!) and final (oh) season, was another very important news item: Cas Anvar, who has played Martian pilot Alex Kamal in the first five seasons of the show, will not be returning for the final season. This announcement comes after an official investigation by a third party on behalf of Alcon Studios due to the many allegations of abuse and harassment made against Anvar by both coworkers and fans, some of whom were under the age of 18. (You can read more about this on The Expanse subreddit, where statements from the accusers, the cast and crew, and Anvar have been compiled.) Anvar appeared in Season 5, but his character, Alex Kamal, was killed in the finale, representing a major departure from the books. Filming on the fifth season finished before the allegations against Anvar came to light. While some have theorized that the character death was added to the finale via reshoots, showrunner Naren Shankar did not confirm the theory when we talked to him ahead of the episode’s airing. For many The Expanse fans, Anvar’s presence in the fifth season complicated the viewing experience. I, like many other Expanse fans, was anticipating that the behind-the-scenes allegations against Anvar, many of which allegedly occurred at conventions, might affect how I watch any plot involving Alex—and it did, especially in an early-Season 5 plot that saw Alex going out on a date with a Martian woman named Lieutenant Babbage under false pretenses. That being said, it has been heartening to know that Alcon Studios, the production company behind The Expanse, has taken these allegations seriously and has seemingly acted on the results of their investigation.
