The Expanse’s Keon Alexander on Marco Inaros’ Troubling Journey

On season 5 of The Expanse, we actually acquired to know Marco Inaros, the charismatic villain who bombards the Earth with asteroids as a part of his plan to seize energy for the Belt (and himself). His reign of terror continues in season six, and as a part of a latest Expanse press day, io9 acquired an opportunity to ask actor Keon Alexander what it’s wish to play the present’s most notorious Belter.

“I think to Marco, being a Belter means being sidelined. I think his experience of it is not so much as a culture as it is being marked to be relegated. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t respect being a Belter or the culture—but I think he is aware that the culture that has developed amongst the Belters has developed [as something] intertwined with their oppression,” Alexander advised io9 over video chat. “I think that he believes that as valuable as that is, that is not their true essence—that is them surviving and not them thriving. And so he is not precious in those terms. He does not have the markings that the others do. He is not bound to upholding that tradition. He is committed to breaking those traditions to actually allow and unleash what they’re capable of and not hold on to the traditions of what they have always been.”

Season 5 went nicely for Marco. On high of his profitable plan to rock-bomb Earth, he additionally struck an alliance with rogue members of the Martian navy to assist construct up his Free Navy, knocked off different Belter leaders who threatened his standing, and managed to take care of management over his teenage son Filip (Jasai Chase Owens), whose loyalty wavered when his long-lost mom, Rocinante engineer Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper) tracked him down. When season six begins, Marco is certainly in his component—however victory’s not fairly how he pictured it.

“Marco is his own dream come true when we find him at the top of season six. He has occupied the throne, as I like to joke, but the question is the way that he has built his being to be able to achieve this, from nothing, from childhood architecturally designing exactly what he needs to be to accomplish this. He has everything invested in that one basket of being the warrior that can lead us to win this battle,” Alexander stated. “What happens when the battle is over and it’s now time to rule? It’s a different set of tools entirely. And we’re meeting him at the beginning of this and when he’s in his full glory, but as also really sitting in the existential crisis of ‘What now, who am I, now that I have actually won this battle? I’m not interested in bureaucracy!’ That switch for him starts revealing what’s underneath all the facade, the cracks in his psychology start becoming apparent. We are meeting him at a really pivotal moment when everything’s about to change. And that’s what happens throughout the season. Everything changes for him.”

One of the issues that adjustments for Marco in season six is his relationship with Filip, whose encounter with Naomi nonetheless haunts him, and whose questioning of his father’s strategies begins to turn out to be an actual downside. “Filip is at the heart of every single one of Marco’s aspirations, his vision. It’s the experience of a single father being responsible for this new life and vowing that this child will not have the same experiences of injustice, oppression, and the violation of humanity that he has experienced—and being willing to do whatever it takes in his life to make sure that this kid doesn’t have to go through the same things that he had to,” Alexander stated. “In his heart of hearts, the root of this is actually love. And what makes it difficult is that level of investment, that level of stakes placed on a child is actually really stifling. Especially [for] a teenager [who starts] developing their own independent notion of what their parent is.”

It’s already a really, very difficult relationship, and Filip’s rising rebel makes issues much more shaky between them. “That’s exactly what we’re watching, the process of Marco’s control loosening and the source of all his stifled love and the object of his whole mission, the person for whom he’s willing to actually sacrifice everything turning against him and questioning him. Which feels like a loss of everything, because he is literally the closest person to him. And even though he feels that love for him, he cannot express any of it. There’s too much in the way for him to even bring himself to articulate any of that,” Alexander stated. “And so it’s messy, it’s really messy. I think it’s an archetypal relationship between sons and fathers that we see around us. It’s the gap between generations. It’s the emotional intelligence that’s missing in order to build those bridges between people in generations. And I think that the writers and the producers did a really good job of setting up that arc.”

We actually see two sides of Marco throughout The Expanse’s sixth season: his public persona, which entails a number of rhetoric-spewing and happy smiling whereas his adoring followers chant his title, and the marginally much less assured self he exhibits behind closed doorways. As Alexander defined, although he might probably not present it, Marco’s nonetheless nursing some deep emotional wounds after the occasions of final season.

“I don’t think he believes in regrets, but I think in his heart, the most devastating experience he’s ever had and the possibly the greatest vulnerability he’s ever had was with Naomi. And I think that if he had succeeded in overcoming his own hurdles in meeting her again and had succeeded in mending some of that, I think we would be in a very different place,” Alexander defined. “There’s a lot about this that I think has to do with the meeting of poles. Marco and Naomi have decided to go in different directions; when they meet, they have a magnetism that pulls them together, but in this instance that did not succeed to overcome what repels them from each other. And if there’s anything that he might consider calling a regret, it would be not having that experience in his life because other than Filip, there is is no one else left really at this point.”

As The Expanse enters its last season, Alexander stated he’ll miss every part about his expertise on the sequence, particularly the chance to work with actors like David Strathairn, who performed legendary Belter chief turned Marco foe Klaes Ashford in seasons three and 4. But additionally? “The speeches were kind of fun,” he admitted with a chuckle. “I might miss speechifying for a little while.”

The Expanse season six premieres Friday, December 10 on Amazon Prime. We’ll have much more Expanse developing on io9 this week, so keep tuned!

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