Syfy's 'The Expanse' Renewed for Season 3

The Expanse season 2 meeting — On the asteroid belt headquarters, Tycho Station, Naomi Nagata (played by Dominique Tipper) and James Holden (Steven Strait) meet with Outer Planets Alliance leader Fred Johnson (Chad Coleman) during Season 2 of "The Expanse." (Image credit: Rafy/Syfy)

The space-based TV series "The Expanse" will return for a 13-episode third season in 2018, the Syfy channel announced yesterday (March 16).

The show, which takes place 200 years in the future, follows Capt. James Holden of the spaceship Rocinante and his crew as well as several other solar-system players navigating the conflicts among populations from Earth, Mars and the asteroid belt. The solar system seems to be always on the brink of war, and nobody has full information about forces that might threaten everyone.

The show's first season, which began in late 2015, lasted 10 episodes, and "The Expanse" is currently eight episodes into a 13-episode second season. The authors of "The Expanse" book series, who are also heavily involved in the show's production, told Space.com that Season 2 delves deeper into the intrigue among the three factions and the effect that the Rocinante crew's origins will have on their interactions and goals.

Season 3 will likely continue that trend, and viewers can expect to see plots and mysteries that tie into the complex network of characters and motivations across the system — with plenty of explosions and ship combat, too.

"The Expanse" currently airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST (9 p.m. CST) on the Syfy channel.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Sarah Lewin started writing for Space.com in June of 2015 as a Staff Writer and became Associate Editor in 2019 . Her work has been featured by Scientific American, IEEE Spectrum, Quanta Magazine, Wired, The Scientist, Science Friday and WGBH's Inside NOVA. Sarah has an MA from NYU's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program and an AB in mathematics from Brown University. When not writing, reading or thinking about space, Sarah enjoys musical theatre and mathematical papercraft. She is currently Assistant News Editor at Scientific American. You can follow her on Twitter @SarahExplains.