| “ | Escort ship done for S3 - design was a riff on the Nathan Hale design seen previously. The thrust-gravity conceit of all the Expanse ships means you can sometimes play with some fun angles, and I seem to remember production really liking this as a way to present the ships. Don't think this was used in the end but it was fun to do! | „ |
| — Lee Fitzgerald on ArtStation[3] | ||
This unused escort ship design was created for Season 3 of The Expanse TV show, intended for inclusion during the space battle against a United Nations Navy vessel in the episode "IFF".[4] The ship was concepted by Expanse concept artist Lee Fitzgerald[3]
The design was based on the Leonidas-class vessel UNN Nathan Hale, featured heavily in Season 2, though significantly scaled down. The ship was ultimately cut from the final episode, and instead replaced with a reused VFX model of the Leonidas - even retaining Nathan Hale's hull classification symbol.[3] This design callback was carried over into The Art and the Making of The Expanse, in which the ship is mistakenly referred to as a "Leonidas-class escort ship".[5]
During the production of the Force Recon series in conjunction with Alcon Entertainment, the ship's status was further explained to series producer Spacedock, noting that the ship is considered non-canon until such a time as it appears in a released work.[4] The ship is featured in a number of official scale charts, alongside the Force Recon scalechart produced by Spacedock, and those included in The Art and Making of the Expanse's interior covers.
Gallery[]
![The escort ship's scale, as seen in Force Recon's scale video.[2]](/wiki/File:Unusedescortships3.jpg "Unusedescortships3.jpg (92 KB)")
References
- ↑ Official scale chart: Season 3 (File link)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 YouTube - Spacedock: How Big Are The Ships of The Expanse?
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 ArtStation - Lee Fitzgerald: The Expanse S3 - UNN Escort Ship
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Reddit - r/theexpanse: Season 3 Ship Scales "Hey. Dan from Spacedock here. Just to clarify for everyone, I was told that "Escort Ship" was a cancelled design that wound up being replaced with a re-use of the Leonidas for the Razorback chase. Don't take anything as canon unless it appears on the show itself or Force Recon."
- ↑ The Art and the Making of The Expanse, p.32-33
