The Expanse Season 4‘s slow burn built up to a massive payoff. The Roci crew ventured to Ilus, a colony planet just beyond the Ring Gate, to prevent the spread of the insidious Protomolecule. Holden caught up with his old pal Joe Miller, Naomi experienced planetary gravity for the first time, and Amos made a new ladyfriend. Back in the Sol system, we saw our first indications of a dramatic power shift away from Earth and Mars, in favor of the long-downtrodden Belters.

Though The Expanse Season 5 doesn’t have an official release date yet, we’ll find out more very soon. On Thursday, October 8, cast and crew of the Amazon series will take part in a panel discussion as part of New. York Comic Con 2020. Here’s everything we know about Season 5.

When is the release date for The Expanse Season 5?

Despite industry-wide pandemic production shutdowns, there’s good reason to hope The Expanse will return in December 2020, in keeping with its previous season on Amazon.

All 10 episodes of the show’s fourth season came to Amazon Prime Video on December 13, 2019. Filming for the season wrapped quite a while before that, in early February 2019. Similarly, filming for Season 5 already wrapped way back in February 2020. Shohreh Aghdashloo, who plays Chrisjen Avasarala, confirmed in late April that the cast had finished filming before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down film and television production worldwide.

Here’s the rub: The Expanse involves a lot of post-production visual effects work from multiple teams. Similar sci-fi shows — like Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 — have been delayed beyond their expected release windows due to the pandemic. Whether Season 5 premieres in late 2020 or early 2021, we’re likely to get a better sense of the date at the October 8 NYCC panel.

The ninth book in the series upon which the show is based, Leviathan Wakes, is due out in 2021. We’d expect new episodes and the final book to come out a couple months apart to maximize hype. Hopefully, this means we’ll see Season 5 in 2020 and Leviathan Wakes in the Spring.

Is there a trailer for The Expanse Season 5?

Amazon hasn’t released a trailer for The Expanse Season 5 yet. While you’re waiting, you can enjoy this behind-the-scenes table read video from Dominique Tipper, who plays Naomi Nagata. She’s sitting next to Jasai Chase Owens, who played her son Filip Inaros in Season 4.

How can I watch the NYCC Expanse panel?

Hosted by series star Dominique Tipper, the panel will be streamed live on Thursday, October 8 at 5:10 p.m. ET at the official NYCC YouTube channel. Once the panel has aired, we’ll embed the video here for your viewing pleasure.

Here’s what fans can expect from the panel, via an Amazon press release ahead of the event:

“This Thursday, October 8, Dominique Tipper leads The Expanse cast and creators to share a first look at the highly anticipated fifth season on Amazon Prime Video. Expect in-depth conversation and a thrilling peek into what they’re most excited for fans to encounter in the next chapter of the Hugo Award-winning sci-fi series.”

Who’s in the cast of The Expanse Season 5?

Most of your favorites will return for the next season, with the notable exception of David Strathairn, who played Klaes Ashford. The character met his untimely end in the Season 4 finale, but he had one hell of a good sendoff.

While Avasarala lost the Secretary-General race to Nancy Gao, we wouldn’t rule out seeing foul-mouthed fan-favorite Shohreh Aghdashloo in Season 5. Last we heard from her in the Season 4 finale, she’s headed to Luna with Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) to work on a secret project to help protect Earth from the impending threat from the belt.

Keon Alexander, Jasai Chase Owens and Nadine Nicole have been bumped up to series regulars for Season 5. They play Marco Inaros, Filip Inaros, and Claire Mao respectively. The Inaros men play major roles in the fifth novel from James S.A. Corey, so expect to see a lot more of both of them.

Back in late June, numerous women accused series star Cas Anvar, who plays Rocinante pilot Alex Kamal, of sexual misconduct. Alcon Entertainment, the studio which produces The Expanse, is conducting an independent investigation of the charges. As of late July, it is not clear whether this will affect Anvar’s role on the show going forward, or the release of Season 5.

Which of the Expanse books is Season 5 based on?

The Expanse Season 4 finale already dipped a toe into Nemesis Games, ending with the cliffhanger of Marco Inaros’ stunning attack on Earth. Season 5 will pick up where that left off, tracing Naomi’s attempt to halt her former lover’s rise to power.

If you want spoilers about Nemesis Games, you can find them pretty easily online. We won’t ruin it for you here if you haven’t read them. Suffice to say, though, that book five is widely regarded as a bit of a game-changer for The Expanse. Back in 2015, io9 called it the “James S.A. Corey’s Empire Strikes Back.” So expect some big drama and stunning reveals.

Will there be a Season 6 of The Expanse?

Amazon has not yet renewed the show beyond Season 5, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. The show’s cast and writers certainly seem eager to make it happen. Wes Chatham, who plays Roci engineer Amos Burton, told Inverse they’ve already talked about completing the serious through a ninth season.

“We always thought, wouldn’t it be amazing, wouldn’t it be great if we can really stick the landing and deliver a story that we would love to see. That’s definitely something we sit around and talk about,” Chatham told Inverse in a May 2020 interview. “My hope is that before we get to 2030, we have completely told the whole Expanse story that includes all the novels through nine. I would love to be able to complete the full story and tell The Expanse at its highest expression.”

All four seasons of The Expanse are streaming on Amazon.