The Expanse creators will cap their new series at three books, so they don't fall into a Star Wars rut

'Star Wars is never going to stop. And Star Trek is the same way. If you have a big universe, it is expected you will just keep dipping in that well.' Reading The Mercy of Gods and The Faith of Beasts, the first two novels in James S.A. Corey’s terrific far-future space-opera trilogy, The Captive’s War, it’s hard to imagine how this story is going to wrap up in just one more book. Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck — authors of the Expanse book series and producers of the TV adaptation, who write together under the Corey name — originally announced Captive’s War as a trilogy. Given the story’s vast setting and the overwhelming challenges the protagonists face, though, it feels like this series could go on for years. But Abraham and Franck are determined not to fall into a Star Wars/Star Trek rut by stretching the story out beyond their original plan. And they sound a little piqued at the idea that they might not be able to wrap it all up with one more installment. “I don't know why everybody's so worried that we're not going to,” Abraham tells Polygon. “All this is following the outline we put together when we started the project. So it's all very much as expected, pretty much in the sco