The Expanse Universe

Overview

The Expanse is a hard science fiction franchise that began as a series of novels and grew into a critically acclaimed television show, multiple video game adaptations, and a tabletop roleplaying game. Created by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck under the joint pen name James S.A. Corey, the franchise is set in a future where humanity has colonized the solar system but has not yet reached the stars. The Expanse: Osiris Reborn draws directly from this universe, telling an original story set during the events of the first two novels.

The franchise is known for its focus on realistic physics, complex political dynamics, and morally grey characters. Unlike many space operas, The Expanse treats space travel as genuinely dangerous: acceleration crushes bodies, radiation kills without warning, and a hull breach means instant death. These constraints shape every aspect of the setting, from military tactics to social structures, and they carry over directly into the game.

The Novel Series

The core of the franchise consists of nine novels published between 2011 and 2021. Each book advances the story by roughly thirty years of in-universe time from start to finish, following humanity's expansion from the inner solar system to the galaxy beyond. The series won the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2020.

In addition to the main novels, Abraham and Franck published eight novellas and one short story that fill gaps between the novels. These were collected in Memory's Legion: The Complete Expanse Story Collection (2022), which also includes a new novella, The Sins of Our Fathers, serving as an epilogue to the series. Notable novellas include The Butcher of Anderson Station (2011), Drive (2012), The Churn (2014), Gods of Risk (2012), The Vital Abyss (2015), Strange Dogs (2017), and Auberon (2019).

The Television Series

The Expanse was adapted into a television series developed by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, premiering on December 14, 2015. The show ran for six seasons and 62 episodes, concluding on January 14, 2022. It is widely regarded as one of the best science fiction series of the 2010s.

Syfy aired seasons one through three before canceling the show in May 2018. A massive fan campaign, including a petition with over 100,000 signatures and a plane flying a banner over Amazon Studios, convinced Amazon to pick up the series. Amazon produced seasons four through six, with the final season consisting of a shortened six-episode run. The show ended after season six, leaving the final three novels (Persepolis Rising, Tiamat's Wrath, and Leviathan Falls) unadapted, though Alcon Entertainment has expressed interest in continuing the story in some form.

The television adaptation made some changes from the novels, most notably introducing the character Chrisjen Avasarala from the first season (she does not appear until the second book) and expanding the role of Bobbie Draper earlier in the story. The show also condensed and rearranged certain plot points. Both the books and the show are considered valid reference material for the game's universe.

The Authors

The Expanse was created by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who write together under the shared pen name James S.A. Corey. The pen name combines Abraham's middle name (James) with Franck's middle name (Corey), while "S.A." comes from the initials of Abraham's daughter.

Daniel Abraham is an American novelist born in 1969, known independently for The Long Price Quartet and The Dagger and the Coin fantasy series. He brought extensive experience with prose, structure, and character development to the collaboration.

Ty Franck, also born in 1969, worked as an assistant to George R.R. Martin before co-creating The Expanse. He brought a background in game design and world-building to the project. The Expanse universe actually originated as a tabletop roleplaying game setting that Franck designed. Abraham played in one of those campaigns, was impressed by the depth of the world, and proposed turning it into a novel series. They divided responsibilities: Abraham focused on prose and structure while Franck drove story and world development, meeting weekly to outline chapters.

Both authors served as writers and producers on the television adaptation, giving them direct involvement in how the universe was translated to screen. Their hands-on approach helped maintain consistency between the novels and the show.

Core Themes

The Expanse is defined by several themes that distinguish it from other science fiction properties, and these themes carry directly into Osiris Reborn.

Realistic Physics: There is no faster-than-light travel, no artificial gravity plates, and no energy shields. Ships accelerate using high-efficiency drives, and the thrust creates gravity for the crew. Turning off the drive means floating in zero-g. Battles happen at extreme range, missiles and rail guns are the weapons of choice, and a single torpedo can end a fight. The game reflects this in its zero-gravity mechanics and overall tone.

Political Tension: The solar system is divided among competing factions with different cultures, economies, and grievances. Earth has a massive population living on basic assistance. Mars is a military powerhouse building toward terraforming. The Belt is exploited for resources and treated as second-class. These tensions drive nearly every conflict in the franchise.

Alien Technology: The discovery of the protomolecule, an alien substance billions of years old, upends the balance of power. It can restructure biological matter, hijack human bodies, and build structures that defy known physics. Every faction wants to control it, and no one fully understands it. The protomolecule is central to Osiris Reborn's story.

Human Nature Under Pressure: The franchise repeatedly examines how people behave when survival is at stake. Idealists become pragmatists, corporations commit atrocities in the name of progress, and ordinary people make extraordinary sacrifices. The choices and consequences system in the game draws on this tradition, putting the player in situations with no clean answers.

Class and Inequality: Belters are born in low gravity and cannot visit Earth without medical assistance. They speak a creole language mixing dozens of Earth tongues. They are miners, haulers, and station workers who generate the wealth that inner-planet citizens enjoy. This class divide is not background flavor; it shapes every interaction, every alliance, and every betrayal in the franchise.

The Three Factions

For players encountering this universe for the first time, the political landscape can be summarized through its three major power blocs. Each faction appears in the game, and the player's chosen origin (Earther, Martian, or Belter) determines their relationship to all three. A more detailed breakdown is available on the dedicated factions page.

For full details on each group, see the Factions article.

Video Game Adaptations

The Expanse universe has been adapted into video games twice, each taking a very different approach to the source material.

The Telltale game was released episodically in five main episodes between July and September 2023, with a bonus episode ("Archangel") in November 2023 featuring Shohreh Aghdashloo reprising her role as Chrisjen Avasarala. It received generally positive reviews for its writing and atmosphere, though some critics noted the limited scope of its gameplay. The game is set before the events of the novels and TV series, making it a prequel that does not require knowledge of the main storyline.

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn takes a very different approach. Developed by Owlcat Games, the studio known for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, it is a full third-person action RPG with companion characters, branching narratives, and deep character progression. Rather than retelling existing stories, it creates an entirely new cast and plot within the established timeline.

Where Osiris Reborn Fits

The game takes place during the timeline of the first two novels, Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War, which corresponds roughly to seasons one through the first half of season three of the television series. This is the period when the protomolecule is first discovered and weaponized, when Protogen conducts its secret experiments, and when the three-way cold war between Earth, Mars, and the Belt begins to boil over.

The player does not step into the shoes of James Holden or any other established character. Instead, the game tells a parallel story. While the Rocinante crew investigates the conspiracy surrounding Protogen's Thoth Station and the Eros incident, the player character, a Pinkwater Security mercenary, stumbles onto a different branch of the same conspiracy. Major canonical events (the Eros incident, the Ganymede crisis) form the backdrop, but the player's investigation leads to separate facilities, operatives, and experiments.

This approach allows the game to explore the protomolecule conspiracy from a fresh angle without contradicting established canon. Players familiar with the books and show will recognize references and connections, while newcomers can experience the story without prior knowledge. For a deeper look at the game's narrative, see the Story and Setting article.

Alcon Interactive Group

The Expanse intellectual property is owned by Alcon Entertainment, an American film production company founded by Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson. Alcon produced all six seasons of the television series and holds the rights to the franchise across all media, including interactive entertainment, graphic novels, and future film or television projects.

In 2016, Alcon established Alcon Interactive Group (AIG) as a dedicated division for expanding the company's film and television properties into video games. AIG licenses Alcon properties to game studios and also produces original interactive projects. Both The Expanse: A Telltale Series and The Expanse: Osiris Reborn were produced through partnerships between AIG and their respective development studios.

AIG's involvement means that the game has access to the full breadth of The Expanse IP, including characters, locations, technology, and lore from both the novels and the television series. Owlcat Games has worked closely with AIG and with the original authors to ensure that Osiris Reborn fits seamlessly into the established universe.

Where Osiris Reborn Sits in the Timeline

Osiris Reborn is an original story threaded through the events of roughly the first two Expanse novels and about the first 2.5 to 3 seasons of the television adaptation. The fall of Eros Station sits at the inciting point of the game: the closed-beta mission opens in the immediate aftermath of that catastrophe. The player and their twin, J, are survivors of it, and the crew of the Rocinante exists on the periphery of the player's story rather than at its center.

The developers have confirmed that characters from the source material are in the game, and that some will make appearances as the story progresses, but they have declined to specify which figures show up or in what capacity. The intent is for the player's arc to sit alongside the canonical events without rewriting them. Seasoned fans of the franchise will recognize the backdrop; newcomers can experience the story without any prior exposure to the novels or the show.

The Political Map as Osiris Reborn Uses It

The solar-system politics that drive The Expanse carry into the game largely intact. Three state-level powers (Earth, the MCR, and the Belt) and a parallel layer of private corporations define most of the conflict the player navigates. The closed beta sketches those power blocs through origin choices, NPC gossip, news broadcasts, and the sheer physical contrast between Inners and Belters.

More detail on how these groups behave in-game lives on the factions page, and Pinkwater Security and Protogen have their own dedicated articles.

Inners Versus Belters in the Game

One of the Expanse universe's defining fault lines is the divide between the Inners (Earth and Mars) and the Belt. The game makes this legible through three main levers:

• Height and build. Belters who grew up in low gravity are visibly taller and more elongated than Inners. In the closed beta this is obvious the moment a Belter main character stands next to an Inner NPC: the difference is several feet in places, and it is noticeable even in idle conversations.

• Social position. Inners have historically treated Belters as an underclass labor pool: miners, haulers, and station workers who generate wealth that the inner planets consume. That imbalance shapes the tone of the Pinkwater workplace, where Belter crew carry out the dangerous contract work for a corporation whose leadership skews Inner.

• Belter Creole. In the source material, Belters speak a distinctive creole that blends dozens of Earth languages. In the closed beta the feature is not yet fully represented: the Belter and Earther presets deliver nearly identical lines, and the accent work is still in progress. The studio has discussed the intent to differentiate the two in the full game.

Technology Baseline Carried Forward

The Expanse's technological baseline (no faster-than-light travel, no artificial gravity plates, no energy shields) continues to shape Osiris Reborn. Ships still run on high-efficiency drives, thrust still provides gravity, and a vacuum breach is still lethal. On top of that, the beta makes several specific pieces of hardware playable for the first time.

Beyond the items in the table, the game layers a limited-healing shield bar on top of a health bar, which the player tops up with repair foam. Weapons fall into five categories (handgun, SMG, shotgun, assault rifle, and sniper rifle) alongside wrist-mounted launchers as a gadget-class family. For the full breakdown, see weapons and equipment and combat and gameplay.

Crew-on-the-Ship Culture

One of the pillars of the source material is the day-to-day life of a small crew sharing a small ship. Osiris Reborn commits to that pattern. During missions the player can bring up to two companions out on foot, but the rest of the crew remains aboard the Gemini, staying in contact through the radio and adding to encounters without ever planting their boots on the ground.

The clearest example in the closed beta is Zafar. While the player and J are moving through Pinkwater Four on foot, Zafar stays on the Gemini and provides tactical guidance over comms. When the situation calls for it, he also uses the ship's PDCs to rake enemy positions on the station, turning the Gemini from a backdrop prop into an active participant in the fight. This is the same crew-as-character dynamic that runs through the novels and the show, translated into cover-shooter terms. For more on the cast that lives on the ship, see the companions hub.

Confirmed Destinations in Osiris Reborn

The developers have named a set of places the full game will visit. The closed beta only opens one of them (Pinkwater Four), but the broader roadmap has been sketched in interviews and the developer overview that accompanied the beta.

A complete list of world-building articles lives on the locations index.

How the Game Signals Expanse Authenticity

Even setting aside the big canon references, the closed beta is full of smaller touches that signal the studio is reading the same source material the community is. Stations look clean-in-progress rather than polished: exposed pipes, patch jobs, dim utility lighting, narrow corridors, and residential bunks stacked tight. You find a hidden bottle of tequila stashed in a shower and a janitor bot with a smiley face wandering the halls. You walk past a news screen where a talking head is complaining that they will not trust the latest rumor until there is another video from James Holden, and other NPCs in the corridor pause to watch the broadcast.

The combat scenes double down on the same approach. In vacuum the audio mix strips gunfire of most of its bite, so the player hears impacts through vibrations and pings off nearby structures. Blood and debris behave as free-floating particles. Enemies killed in vacuum lose their boot grip and drift. Dialogue leans on political intrigue (Luciana's MCR gossip about the Piranha's captain is the representative example) rather than space-opera heroics. These are the markers that separate The Expanse from generic science fiction, and they are the ones the developers appear to be optimizing for. For more on the audio approach in particular, see sound design.

Player-Facing Hooks Into the Universe

For new players who want to engage the Expanse universe through the game rather than through the books or the show, there are a few entry points worth knowing about:

• The character creation and progression system maps each origin (Earther, Belter, Martian) onto a different personal passive, so the player's background quietly shapes early exploration checks.

• The story and setting article walks through how the game's original plot interlocks with canon events around Eros.

• The combat and gameplay and zero-gravity mechanics pages cover how the universe's physics rules are enforced moment to moment.

• The Protomolecule article is the place to start for the single most consequential piece of alien technology in the franchise.

Osiris Reborn treats the Expanse universe as a setting to inhabit rather than a set piece to reference, and the closed beta demonstrates that the studio is building outward from the same fundamentals that shaped the novels and the show.