ICYMI: Naren Shankar talks about The Expanse, Joel Kinnaman on his future on Altered Carbon, and Consider Phlebas is being adapted by Amazon

Welcome back to another issue of Sci-Fi After Dark! Before we get to this week’s news, be sure to get caught up on what you may have missed in our previous issue.

Naren Shankar, the showrunner of Syfy’s The Expanse, talked with Den of Geek about the challenges of adapting the book series to TV, season three, and more.

“I think it’s a tough, tough thing, and [Syfy has] been extremely supportive of The Expanse. They’ve been really great partners creatively. They’ve been great to work with. I mean, we have plenty of disagreements, there are times I can’t be easy to deal with, but it’s been a respectful process and, at the end of the day, they’ve let us tell the story the way we want to.”

‒ Naren Shankar (showrunner)

Altered Carbon’s Joel Kinnaman sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss his role as Takeshi Kovacs, his involvement with the show moving forward, and more.

Amazon Studios is adapting the Consider Phlebas book series by Iain M. Banks. Dennis Kelly (Utopia) will be heading the series.

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Hot Topic: Official name for the “Samurai World” in season 2 of Westworld

After the final episodes of the first season of Westworld revealed that there are other large worlds that are part of the park, fans began questioning how much of a role the “Samurai World” hinted at would be featured in the second season. It now has an official name: Shogun World (or possibly Shogunworld or ShogunWorld). The showrunners discussed the decision to go with an Asian-themed park with The Hollywood Reporter after the first season finished airing.

“The reason we went with the shogun, Imperial Japanese motif for that world is in large part because of the beautiful relationship you had between the golden age Westerns and the golden age samurai films. As soon as Akira Kurosawa would make a film, it would get remade with cowboys. The idea that those stories worked in two very distinct genres and languages, and the relationship between those genres, to me was irresistible as an homage to how Kurosawa was responsible for some of the greatest Westerns of all time.”

‒ Jonah Nolan (showrunner)

The second season of Westworld premieres on April 22 on HBO.

TVAD Writers Room: Our roundtable for The X-Files discusses automation, AI, and more in response to the latest episode!

Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) went up against multiple automated threats in the latest episode of FOX’s The X-Files. Titled “Rm9sbG93ZXJz,” or “Followers” after being decoded from base64, explored the advancement of technology and humanity’s increasing reliance on automation. The episode was one of the more unique episodes of the series and gave our roundtable a lot talk about. It also completely changed their views on tipping. Find out why that happened and more here!

Interviews: Altered Carbon’s Will Yun Lee talks about his role and what it represents

Will Yun Lee (Falling Water, Hawaii Five-0), who plays Takeshi Kovacs in his original body in Netflix’s Altered Carbon, recently talked with The Hollywood Reporter about his role as the character, what it took to get in shape to play him, the role’s cultural significance, and a lot more!

“As an Asian-American male, throughout most of my career, you kind of sit on the bench. You wait your turn. You get the ball. You do a couple of downs, and then they sit you back on the bench. But the incredible part of that is I was able to take in the incredible work I’ve watched over the 19 years I’ve been doing this. When Laeta said go? I got the jersey, I put on the helmet, and I was able to just… run. That was an amazing experience. Being a person of color? A lot of times, we’re relegated to living on the edge of the screen.”

‒ Will Yun Lee (Takeshi Kovacs)

Coming Soon: The Expanse season 3 gets a release date and trailer and new Westworld season 2 photos!

Westworld’s April 22nd season premiere on HBO is rapidly approaching. To give a small preview of what’s in store, EW released a collection of exclusive photos.

Fans of Syfy’s adaptation of The Expanse can finally rest easy. After lots of speculation, the third season finally has a release date. The third season of The Expanse will premiere on Syfy on April 11th. Syfy also released a teaser trailer. Watch it out below!

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What’s Happening Next Week: The X-Files promo trailer and synopsis for “Familiar!”

The eleventh season of The X-Files will be continuing next week with episode 8, “Familiar.” The episode will air on March 7th at 8/7c on FOX. FOX has also released a synopsis and a promotional trailer for the episode. Check them both out below!

“Mulder and Scully investigate the brutal animal attack of a little boy in Connecticut while suspecting darker forces are at play.”