In The Expanse season 6, episode 1 "Strange Dogs" confirms the death of one of the series' season 1 characters, Anderson Dawes. Played by Jared Harris in The Expanse season 1 and briefly in season 2, Dawes was introduced as the leader of one of the more radical branches of the Belt’s Outer Planets Alliance compared to the more tepid approach of Fred Johnson's faction. Dawes has been killed off-screen rather than filling the role he held in the books, and although it was the most sensible decision, one can't help but feel that the show wastes the character.
Based on the book series of the same title written by Ty Frank and Daniel Abraham, aka James S.A. Corey, The Expanse follows the sixth novel Babylon's Ashes in season 6. In the book, Dawes acts as head of Ceres Station when Marco Inaros and the Free Navy ascend to power. Dawes eventually switches sides and joins other dissidents against Marco.
The Expanse season 6 sees Nico Sanjrani fill the role of Ceres Station's commander-in-chief in place of Dawes from the books. Talking with Sanjrani and his new co-captain Rosenfeld in a Ceres bar, Marco says, "Dawes is dead because I got tired of listening to what he had to say." Marco goes on to declare Ceres the capital of the Belt. While Dawes' role in Babylon's Ashes is rather small and feasible to exclude, the character's absence is felt in the wake of his underwhelming demise.
Evidently, Marco had Dawes assassinated, much like he organized the death of The Expanse's Fred Johnson on Tycho station in season 5. Deviating from the books and killing off both Fred and Dawes differently from the books changes the show's narrative in that there exist fewer prominent figures from the Belt for Marco to contend and interact with, but it establishes Marco as the Belt's sole leader and puts a spotlight on him more than anyone else — which makes sense given the shortened length of six episodes in The Expanse season 6.
The writers' decision to kill Dawes away from the action instead of bringing back the character likely stems from Jared Harris' unavailability. The Chernobyl actor's popularity has risen exponentially since his last appearance in The Expanse in 2017. Harris recently starred in the cast of Apple TV+'s Foundation and will appear in the upcoming Marvel film Morbius. Harris' busy schedule as of late probably means that he wasn't willing to make time for a minor role such as Dawes — whose involvement in the show was important, yet almost always sparse. Assuming that Harris' return was not possible, revealing Dawes' off-screen death early in The Expanse season 6 was the easiest solution to this character problem despite its unremarkable nature.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/3IKqMXC
0 Comments