Movies - TV
The Expanse Showrunner Was Against The Books’ Authors Writing
The Show
By MICHAEL BOYLE
One of the most surprising changes from the book series to “The Expanse” TV adaptation was the different story structure, with Season 1 combining a lot from book 2.
Using book 2 gave Season 1 four POV characters to follow, rather than just the two from the first book, which is much more representative of the series' general format.
These needed changes to the story was part of the reason why showrunner Naren Shankar was hesitant to work with the authors, who shared, “I was initially quite against it!”
He continued, “I had done adaptations before and authors can be precious, and not knowing [Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham] at that time, it could be a minefield.”
However, Franck and Abraham — who share the pen name James S. A. Corey — didn’t have the negative reaction Shankar feared, who added, “They were very open to it and got it.”
Shankar praised his time working with the authors, saying, “It ended up being such a really great experience of having the authors adapt their own work to a different medium.”