The Expanse season 5 is streaming now, after the first three episodes debuted on Wednesday, Dec. 16 on Amazon Prime. The remaining seven episodes are released weekly on Wednesdays.
Get ready to head back into space when you watch The Expanse season 5 online on Amazon Prime Video. The action-packed sci-fi drama is back with 10 new episodes in its penultimate season. Yes, The Expanse is coming to an end with a sixth and final chapter.
In the meantime, Season 5 is streaming now. The story picks up with multitudes of humans leaving the solar system in search of new homes on Earth-like worlds beyond the alien Ring. The centuries of exploitation in the Belt is finally yielding terrible consequences and the crew of the Rocinante is feeling the effects.
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Trying to escape the past is a theme for several of the major characters in The Expanse season 5. Holden (Steven Strait) confronts his dealings with the Protomolecule, the aliens who built it and the mystery of what killed them. Amos (Wes Chatham) returns to Earth to face the life he left behind, while Naomi (Dominique Tipper) reaches out to her estranged son and Drummer (Cara Gee) is settling in with a new crew.
Bobbie (Frankie Adams) and Alex (Cas Anvar) grapple with the collapse of Mars as they chase a shadowy cabal tied to terrorists. And Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo fights to prevent a terrorist attack unrivaled in history.
Here’s everything to know about how to watch The Expanse season 5.
How to watch The Expanse season 5 online anywhere, with a VPN
If you're away from home, in one of the few areas that doesn't get Amazon Prime, you don't need to miss The Expanse season 5. Watching along with the rest of the internet can be pretty easy with the right VPN (virtual private network), you can stream the show from wherever you go.
Our best VPN pick is ExpressVPN. It meets the VPN needs of the vast majority of users, offering outstanding compatibility with most devices and impressive connection speeds. It's also affordable at $12.95 per month. (Signing up for longer periods of six months or a year reduces the cost even more.)
How to watch The Expanse season 5 online in the US and the UK (and most other countries too)
Practically everyone around the world has access to Amazon Prime Video, which means they can watch The Expanse season 5.
Episode 1, 2 and 3 are streaming now after being released Wednesday, Dec. 16 at midnight ET.
The remaining 7 episodes will be available weekly on Wednesdays.
The Expanse season 5 trailer
The trailer opens with the solar system on the brink of a huge conflict, as faction leader Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander) calls upon his fellow Belters to rise up against centuries of mistreatment.
As for the Roci crew, as Holden is told, he has everything — a good ship, a crew, love. Yet, he's never going to stop worrying about the fate of the world.
The Expanse season 5 cast
Most of the core cast of The Expanse is back for season 5:
- Steven Strait as James Holden, captain of the Rocinante ship
- Cas Anvar as Alex Kamal, ship pilot
- Dominique Tipper as Naomi Nagata, ship engineer
- Wes Chatham as Amos Burton, ship mechanic
- Frankie Adams as Bobbie Draper, Martian marine
- Cara Gee as Camina Drummer, commander of the Medina Station
- Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala, former Secretary-General of the United Nations
Fans can also expect to see these recurring cast members:
- Chad L. Coleman as Fred Johnson, Chief of Operations at Tycho Station
- Anna Hopkins as Monica Stuart, a journalist and documentary filmmaker
- Nadine Nicole as Clarissa Mao, prisoner and Jules-Pierre Mao's elder daughter
- Keon Alexander as Marco Inaros, Belter leader
- Jasai Chase Owens as Filip Inaros, Marco and Naomi's son
- Lily Gao as Nancy Gao, Secretary-General of the United Nations
- Michael Irby as UNN Admiral Delgado
The Expanse season 5 reviews
Reviews of The Expanse season 5 are flowing in. Here's a round-up of what TV critics are saying:
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AV Club: "The chemistry and interplay among the crew of the Rocinante has always been a major draw, and here, it’s more or less a moot point, with each one stranded from the rest, isolated in part by the massive crisis that serves as the season’s main threat. The fact that this works as well as it does is both a testament to the quality of the source material, and proof positive of how much time the show has put in making sure all of its core cast is worth watching."
Paste: "Having its core characters so dramatically isolated means that the action in Season 5 is, by necessity, much slower than a lot of fans will be used to—and The Expanse already had the capacity to be a pretty slow show."
Den of Geek: "The emotional stakes are high in The Expanse season 5, and although the action takes a few episodes to really kick in, once things shift into high gear, it’s full speed ahead."
Ars Technica: "The Expanse's fifth season is the best since its first, a long-awaited high-stakes payoff to several seasons' worth of setup. If you drifted away from the show during earlier seasons, like something accidentally dropped in microgravity, this new season makes it worth finding a way to come back."
Comics Beat: "If you want a gritty sci-fi space show, The Expanse is still your best bet. Really, truly. It just has it all–mostly realistic physics, interesting politics, a diverse and excellent cast, well-plotted story, and character arcs–but I still saw the same flaws that I expressed in my fourth season review. Namely, that The Expanse needs a Big Bad who’s more than a monologuing polemicist (Marco) or possibly evil aliens (that’s still vague). "
