May 26, 2018: Congratulations to The Expanse! And what does this mean for Dark Matter fans?

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A well-earned congratulations to the cast, crew and fandom of The Expanse.  Your pluck and perseverance paid off in the form of a fourth season pick-up courtesy of sci-fi fan Jeff Bezos at Amazon.  Enjoy the ride!

On the heels of the announcement, many Dark Matter fans are wondering why Amazon doesn’t pick up a fourth season of their favorite show too.  Well, while it’s technically possible, the odds are stacked against us for the following reasons…

1 – Unlike The Expanse, Dark Matter was never considered a marquee show and, as such, never received the warm critical reception or celebrity endorsements that really bring attention to a show…and any post-cancellation campaign.  We were, admittedly, a budget-challenged production (delivering at roughly less than one-third the production budget of Syfy’s big sci-fi originals), but made up for it in heart and humor.  It’s one of the big reasons why, while our fans loved us, we remained off the mainstream radar.

2 – From what I understand, Amazon had the second window streaming rights to The Expanse.  By green lighting a fourth season, they will essentially be expanding their existing library.  In the case of Dark Matter, however, the scenario was slightly more complicated as it was Netflix that owned those second window streaming rights worldwide.  In a best case scenario, they would have picked us up.  When they didn’t, we faced an uphill challenge attempting to sell the show to another streaming platform (ie. Amazon) given that they would be picking up a fourth season without the streaming rights to the first three.

3 – Timing is everything, especially when it comes to standing sets.  Unlike The Expanse, Dark Matter’s sets were struck months ago.  A green light would require us to rebuild.  Not impossible given the fact we have all of the plans filed away, but extra costs would be incurred.

4 – Finally, there’s the issue of cast availability.  Since the cancellation, the former cast members have been very busy and, even in the miraculous event we were to get a fourth season pick-up, there’s no guarantee we could get everyone back – and I couldn’t imagine continuing the adventure without the whole family onboard.

Having said all that, I’m not quite ready to throw in the towel just yet.  I firmly believe that so long as the fanbase is out there clamoring for more, there will always be hope.  In my mind, the best case scenario would be a page out of the Farscape playbook.  That show’s trajectory was very similar to Dark Matter‘s – cancelled by Syfy on a cliffhanger at the top of its game – yet its fandom never gave up.  Farscape fans hung in there, remained loyal and loud, and they were eventually rewarded with a mini-series, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars.

The odds are admittedly stacked against us, but we’ve faced even longer and won. Like that time we first faced off against Ferrous Corp on that mining planet.  Or that time Wendy the robot tried to fly us into a sun?  Or that time we were captured by the Galactic Authority and locked up in the Hyperion-8 Maximum Security Galactic Detention Facility?  Or that time we were caught in the destruction of EOS-7?  Or that time TWO was infected by an alien, THREE was whisked away by Alt. Portia, the Android was taken off-line, SIX seemingly sacrificed himself, and FIVE was left in command of The Raza in the company of two unlikely allies: Ryo Ishida and Wexler?

All we need is faith, focus, determination…and an online campaign dedicated to targeting Jeff Bezos and Amazon.