Not content with updating the list of people who will help bring its streaming version of JRR Tolkien's stories to life, Amazon used its panel at the Television Critics Association summer press tour to bring good news for fans of shows including The Expanse. The sci-fi series is among those scoring a new season renewal, which in this case means Season 5 will happen.
The show was saved from cancellation by Amazon this year, and Season 4 will debut in December (a trailer and clip dropped during the San Diego Comic-Con). This renewal news means we'll get to see the further adventures of the Rocinante crew.
Also scoring an early renewal – before the first season has even arrived – is fantasy series Carnival Row. Set in a Victorian-esque fantasy world filled with mythological immigrant creatures whose exotic homelands were invaded by the empires of man. This growing population struggles to coexist with humans – forbidden to live, love, or fly with freedom. But even in darkness, hope lives, as a human detective, Rycroft Philostrate (Orlando Bloom), and refugee faerie Vignette Stonemoss (Cara Delevingne) rekindle a dangerous affair despite an increasingly intolerant society. Vignette harbors a secret that endangers Philo’s world during his most important case yet: a string of gruesome murders threatening the uneasy peace of the Row. Check out some teasers for the show, arriving 30 August, here.
In new show news, Amazon has ordered an eight-episode season of The Banker's Wife, which will see Meredith Stiehm adapting Cristina Alger's novel. The Banker’s Wife is a high-stakes international thriller set in the world of global finance, from Geneva to Paris, London and New York, about two women racing for answers when a mysterious plane crash sets them off on parallel pursuits of truth. As they shine a light on hidden offshore accounts meant to be kept in the dark, the pair will become embedded in the crosshairs of danger within a larger conspiracy of money laundering, powerful politicians and a web of terrorists and criminals, thus transforming their lives forever.
But the tidings were not all glad: if you were enjoying the Fred Armisen/Maya Rudolph comedy series Forever, action comedy Patriot, horror anthology Lore, The Romanoffs or Nicolas Winding Refn's Too Old To Die Young, none of the series will be back.