[Note: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault.]
Actor Cas Anvar, best known for his starring role on the Amazon (formerly Syfy) series The Expanse, is being investigated over allegations of sexual misconduct, Deadline reports. Daniel Abraham, one of the authors upon whose work the series is based, says he brought the allegations—which have been appearing in increasing volume on social media over the last week—to the show’s studio, Alcon, which has now reportedly hired an independent firm to evaluate the accusations.
Anvar—who’s also had recent roles on How To Get Away With Murder and Canadian drama Cardinal—plays pilot Alex Kamal on the sweeping sci-fi series. The accusations against him, meanwhile, are depressingly familiar at this point; allegations that he used his status among both Expanse fans, as well as those of the Assassin’s Creed games (where he voiced one of the main characters in 2011's Assassin’s Creed: Revelations) to manipulate and coerce young women, some underage, into sexual situations, and into sending him sexual photographs. There have also been multiple accusations of Anvar sexually assaulting women under similar circumstances.
The producers and and other people behind The Expanse appear to be taking the allegations against Anvar seriously. In addition to announcing the investigation, the Twitter account of James S. A. Corey (the pen name shared on the book series by Abraham and Ty Franck) issued a thank you to the women who have come forward with their experiences with Anvar.
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Bummer. For some reason he seemed like he would be a good person in real life. As for the show hes the least interesting character so wont be hard to kill him off.
(Thank god it wasnt Amos, I’d probably shed a tear or two)
Looks like another smear SJW campaign ala Jonny Depp.
Looks like another SJW smear campaign by an ex girlfriend, ala Johnny Depp.
Well. Fuck. I read something about this earlier in the week, but since the only source quoted was a tweet, I though it might be BS. Well, then , fuck.
Damn. Well, I guess I’m hopeful that whoever they cast as his replacement establishes a quick and easy chemistry with the other cast members.
Or don’t replace him because bitter climbers are a dime a dozen and usually allegations against famous people are fake. They’re just easy targets for disgruntled groupies.
While I appreciate the way Bobbie and Christian play off each other, I have no idea why they just didn’t make Sgt Draper a permanent member of the Roci crew.
She’s our link to the non-Roci parts of the Expanse universe. Sometimes via her “day to day” life on whatever station or planet she gets stranded on, sometimes via her “in the room where it happened” access to interplanetary politics, which she gets by occasionally relenting and taking a high-paying, high-prestige job with Avrasarala. (Yeah yeah, she’s Martian, oh the shame of working for an Earther etc etc…)
Also her plot this season was based off a novella called Gods of Risk.
I was a little peeved that she wasn’t out in space any more, but she did have family back on Mars. But more importantly, her story this season allowed us to see how Mars has turned in post-Soviet Russia: the people have lost their purpose which was just…go to war against Earth, and now that’s gone they’re hocking the equivalent of their nuclear submarines to whatever’s the 23rd century equivalent of Pepsi.
Partial credit!
That happens later in the book series.
Bobbie should be joining the Roci crew on a more permanent basis next season. I won’t go into spoilers as to why though. But it involves the Roci crew splitting up for a bit.
Because she wasn’t a permanent member in the books at this point. She was introduced in Book 2 and then didn’t reappear until Book 5.
The show is based on the books.
Spoilers below…
Bobbie does become part of the crew, but we’re not there yet in TV show time.
Wait for it. 🙂
I hope the casting goes better than when Arjun was recast. That was fucking jarring.
I totally missed that. He was such an unimportant character before this last season to me, that I must have forgotten what he looked like between seasons.
I never got all the “OMG THEY REPLACED ARJUN!” drama.I was just like “Who?” He was around for like five minutes just to give Chrisjen a bit of backstory and grounding in the first season, and then he was irrelevant.
I didn’t really care about them changing the actor, I was more peeved about changing his character. Arjun early on (And especially in the books) is pointedly disconnected from politics. Which is why he and Chrisjen get on so well. He is her respite from her day to day bullshit. Dude is a like a poet in the books I think. They changed him into a boring political spouse, and I don’t think it was needed.
Yeah, true. Although I wonder if he was cool with her being, more or less, the under-the-table, behind-the-scenes politician, not someone in the spotlight as Sec-Gen. I was more referring to the fact that a lot of people seemed to be losing it at the change of actor as much as anything – hell, I don’t even remember what he looked like back in S1.
He looked just like Raj’s dad on “The Big Bang Theory.”
But did you catch that he taught a course that had Bill and Ted as authors to study?
I did not.
He says something when he dismisses his class about reading more of the works of Preston, someone else, and Logan.
Nice. Good catch.
I’m with you on this. Alex Kamal will be another situation entirely.
Yeah, Daario Naharis in Game of Thrones was another one. I get that sometimes recasting is inevitable, and they won’t find a perfect match, but at least get someone with a similar look to smooth the transition.
I didn’t even realize he was supposed to be the same character, I just assumed he was someone new considering her change in station within. I probably would have gone on never knowing, having apparently missed his name being said, if not for this comment right here.
So, and I hope this isn’t a spoiler but I’ll add a bit of space here…… as far as I can remember, he never ever appears again after Book 1. He’s mentioned a hell of a lot by Chrisjen, but he (himself) doesn’t appear. Unless it’s in one of the novellas (and I haven’t read any of the novellas). So the actor was likely on a one+ year contract, finished that up, and went from cable residual guest star rates to a main role on a network sitcom residual rate (I Feel Bad on NBC, where we loved him there too). No brainer, and probably not one that anyone thought about.Much like Magnum PI was supposed to reappear in Season 4, the fact that he (the actor) was the main star on a network TV show now mooted that…
Yeah, what the frick was up with that? I was so confused with trying to figure out who the hell this was. In addition to a very much younger actor, he also had very different characteristics.
Oh god, was it ever. I thought I’d missed some kind of major plot point about Christian’s marriage falling apart or being widowed or something.
It was funny how Brian George (Arjun #1) was doing the exact same thing on two different series at the same time — communicating via screen as Chrisjen’s husband on “The Expanse” AND as Raj’s father on “The Big Bang Theory.”That has to have been some kind of first.
they could have an explosion that catches Alex. They take him to a medical facility and they have to rebuild his face. Boom new actor, same character.
Oh well. You know, there’s lots of ways for pilots to die on spaceships. Hell, the death doesn’t even need to be onscreen.
Im not gonna fault a celebrity for using their fame for gains like sex with willing partners of appropriate age.Like it’s a low bar. it shouldn’t be that tough to just skip over it.
People using their fame to get laid is nothing new, and there are plenty of people are very willing to fuck a celebrity, even someone like this who really isn’t that famous or well known, just to say they did. But is it really too much to ask that they make sure they’re able to consent first? And if the excuse is that you can’t tell how old someone is on Twitter, then maybe don’t use Twitter for that purpose! Did no one learn anything from Anthony Weiner?
I didn’t
Anthony Weiner learned nothing from Anthony Weiner!
I hear that “Have you learned nothing from Anthony Wiener?” is now tattooed on Weiner’s chest in mirror script, like Memento.
“Remember Anthony Weiner”
Remember Weiner
I agree with you, there’s a fine line between something that’s fine and understandable (I’m that guy from that show, let’s get it on and also send me pics plz) and using the internet to groom/manipulate people who are too young to know better (which is something that’s not fine or understandable). Like, if you can’t tell if they are old enough in their profile pictures then maybe don’t ask for/coerce nudes.
This part was the real clincher though: “There have also been multiple accusations of Anvar sexually assaulting women under similar circumstances.” like, using your fame to get questionable pics is one thing because even though he should know better people misrepresent themselves on the internet all the time, but sexually assaulting people is way further down in the hole of awful stuff you shouldn’t be able to come back from and still get cast. Unless you’re Mel Gibson or the president or something, then its ok apparently.
Yeah, that’s my take away.
If he was banging consenting groupies, fine. If he slept with a 17yo groupie who looked mature and lied about her age that’s not good, but he should keep his job after doing some community service or charitable donations.If he was pressuring them, luring them to his hotel under promises of “partying with the crew”, or specifically targeting younger fans… then fuck him, fire him, and replace him.
“Carlos Danger” is a cautionary take for everybody….
Based on the reports so far, “appropriate age” is highly questionable.
There does need to be some separation of wording in these sort of articles between a celeb making passes at fans and the really bad stuff: sexual stuff with underage girls, promising career favors for sex, physical assault, rape, etc., at least two of which this guy is accused of. Sometimes I get the impression people are outraged by the sex between stars and fans itself, which can be sleazy but shouldn’t necessarily be career-ending, and the actual offenses.
What about the article is unclear, though? It says he used his status to “manipulate and coerce” people into doing sex things with him. Where does there need to be a “separation of wording”? How does “manipulate and coerce” sound like “making passes at fans”?
What does “manipulate and coerce” mean actually. That is a characterization of actions, not a description of them. However, I am assuming whne they say sexual assault they mean sexual assault.
… Manipulate and coerce are English words with meanings, so I understand them to mean what they mean, and neither one of them is an acceptable way to obtain sex. One may choose to interpret them as meaning something other than what they mean, and no doubt many people will.
Language is not your strong suit, is it? Yes, they have meanings but they are conclusions and often people can disagree on whether actions were such. They are in fact characterizations of actions based on context and inferences and not straightforward factual descriptions. Now in many cases the vast majority will agree, but in many other situations people disagree. Your viewpoint is not the universal viewpoint. So tone down the attitude.
lol Language is actually my job. And yes, they do have meanings, and no they are not conclusions. They are things that people do. They are verbs. If someone says they were coerced, you can, if you want, go back through the details and decide they weren’t and that they were lying, and you are allowed. Or you can just believe that the person knows what coerced means and believe what they say. By your logic, lots of verbs can be a “conclusion.” Hey, I swam in the lake yesterday. Hm, wait, did you really “swim” in the lake, or did you float? What do you call swimming? Did you just splash around? Did your feet leave the floor of the lake at any time? Did you use your arms? Hm, swimming is a conclusion and not an actual verb.Whether you agree that someone used a word correctly doesn’t change the meaning of the word. The fact that someone might have misused a word doesn’t mean that the word doesn’t mean what it means. When you and the other guy make this argument, what you are really saying is “I don’t believe these women were actually coerced into sex like they said, and I want to interrogate them because a male actor I like has been accused of something and bitches lie.” If you want to argue that, you are totally free. But it has nothing to do with language. It has to do with the fact that you think someone is lying.
You are an extremely literal person who can’t seem to comprehend that different people may look at the same fact pattern and draw different conclusions. Coercion is a conclusion, not a straightforward fact. If your job is dealing with language, I feel sorry for your clients, internal or external“If someone says they were coerced, you can, if you want, go back through the details and decide they weren’t and that they were lying,”Your basic premise – that if one person says A and the next says B it therefore follows that one of them is lying – is extremely simplistic.
Swimming is a verb with a very specific meaning. Generally when someone goes out in the water we accept swimming as a shorthand for that. However, floating or splashing around is not in fact swimming and if the exact detail of whether the person was actually swimming mattered then it would be relevant to say they weren’t. It does not change the meaning of the word. Coercion also has a meaning, but it is not an act itself. You can say someone was swimming, because a specific group of actions comprise swimming. Coercion, short of using straight up physical force or direct threats of bodily harm involves an interpretation of whether someone’s statements qualify as such. Even moreso with manipulation. “Whether you agree that someone used a word correctly doesn’t change the meaning of the word.” And no one is arguing that. However, the usage is the fucking point, dimbulb.
I’m not sure I’d consider myself especially literal. Of course people might look at the same fact pattern and make different conclusions. But that doesn’t mean that the word coerce doesn’t have a meaning and that it means what it means. When you say you might “draw a different conclusion,” what you are saying is either 1) the person doesn’t know what coerce means and you do, or that 2) the person is lying.Anyway, this is fine. You think the woman who said she was coerced is just stupid girl who doesn’t know when she’s being flattered, or that she had sex with him because he was famous and now she regrets it so she’s calling it coercion, or something like that, and it’s gross, but it’s certainly your right to feel that way, so carry on.I will say that while you feel sorry or my clients, if your idea of “coercion” varies that greatly from what women call “coercion,” I feel really sorry for whatever women you think have consented to sex with you in the past.
“Of course people might look at the same fact pattern and make different conclusions.”. “When you say you might “draw a different conclusion,” what you are saying is either 1) the person doesn’t know what coerce means and you do, or that 2) the person is lying.”Whoooosh. You don’t realize that those are contradictory statements? If you were talking in legal terms – i.e. some sort of legal standard like burglary or battery – then there might be enough objectivity for a fact finder to determine whether coercion as a legal standard was met. However, eve then juries might disagree. Also 50 states have 50 definitions.However, you appear to be referring to a simple dictionary definition.Happy, positive, unctuous, and sleazy all have definitions. However they are all subjective too. I am not sure why you can’t make that connection. .
While I was thinking more of articles like this one rather than criticizing this particular one, I would argue that using his status to “manipulate and coerce” is fairly vague. Was he throwing his celebrity around and offering insights from his show/video game? That could be manipulative but it’s not worthy of public scorn necessarily. Was he promising professional favors for sex? That’s more serious. The heart of the charges seems to be his relations with underage fans and the assault allegations.
It’s not vague at all though. It means he used his status to manipulate and coerce women and girls into sex. They didn’t provide you all the grizzly details, so you can either do further research to find those grizzly details, if they are available, or you can accept the words at their common meanings, and frankly there’s no reason not to do the latter. If you want to believe he was just “offering insights” from his show, you certainly may do that. (That’s not really manipulation, FYI, and you are conveniently leaving out the “coerce” part, but tomato tomato.)
His partners were frequently underage (perhaps this was less widely known at the time of your comment), and there was a level of coercion and manipulation involved. That’s not just scuzzy, it is rape and sexual assault.
Groupies and climbers mad they didn’t get the careers they wanted. Be pepared for women worshiping incels to believe this nonsense.
I don’t think this spin-off is going to get picked up.
I don’t think this pick up is going to get spun off
The Expanded Expanse? At this expense?
What did he actually do though?
I really like the show overall, but it’s primarily because of the plot and interstellar politics. I think the acting generally is pretty meh, Anvar included. Not saying that he should get a pass if he were more talented, but if the rumors are substantiated, I don’t think it’ll be a drag on my enjoyment of the show to give him the boot and re-cast Alex.
Jesus.Look. We get it. You’re kinda-semi-famous. That gets you a certain amount of game. You use that game. Fair. But you HAVE to know by now, if they fans you wanna bang are under 30, card ‘em first. If that’s over twitter, or skype, have ‘em show you their license! Or better yet, if you’re looking to meet IRL, meet in a bar, where they’ll be carded on the way in. They got in? Great! They’re 21! you have cleared the very easy hurdle of NOT BEING A KIDDIE FUCKER.This isn’t even a bar to clear. It’s a speed bump. Take the MINIMUM amount of care and you won’t get your muffler ripped off by bottoming out on social media.That metaphor kinda got outta hand. sorry.
That doesn’t really solve the problem of kids having fake IDs or misrepresenting themselves on the internet, as both instances happen all the time. However, if it seems too close to call he could just avoided the trouble by going home and jerking off and that would have very easily solved this problem. Unless he was masturbating to a kiddie fucker in which case he’s beyond our help.
at least he could claim to have done minimal due diligence.I don’t know if that would be a worthwhile legal defence (I’m guessing ‘no’) but it MIGHT hold at least some sway in the public opinion How-Toxic-Are-You? sweepstakes he’s currently participating in.
“Hey! She said she was 23! I don’t know from fake ID’s from Utah!!”
To be fair, that maneuver didn’t work for creepy asshole Projared.
> ProjaredI don’t understand that, and I’m not going to respond to it.
Short version, he’s a YouTuber who gaslit his wife, cheated on her with one of her best friends, and exploited his female fans to exchange nudes with him. The latter is more egregious since his “receipts” to prove that the women he coerced were at least 18 doesn’t prove anything.
I’m a crim defense lawyer, “not knowing their age” is not a defense to statutory rape.
the burden is on him, he needs to be sure and not a creep. this sounds like he already had the predilection and is fame gave him the opportunity.
I think you’re being generous with the “kinda-sorta-famous”
He’s definitely the weakest actor of the core cast so it won’t be much trouble recasting him. Which I hope they do, because he can fuck off.
I don’t think he is a stellar actor either, and even his character can just be written out. However, this sort of scandal, with the upcoming season in the can and past seasons with him being so prominent can kill a show’s future. If he really did some BAD stuff, current “cancel/erase culture” could even kill its past seasons from ever being available no matter how good they might have been (see Cosby Show). Sad situation.
Cosby drugged and raped women. Cas Anvar, at most, tried to unsuccessfully force himself on women, and acted like a fucking asshat every whichaway.His past and involvement lack of presence going forward won’t even remotely kill it. You say Cas Anvar, 99.99999% of all people – even may who may watch the show – will simply go “Who?”He’s a fucking nobody who thought he was a somebody. That’s one of the easiest problems to fix.
Which past seasons of The Cosby Show are not available no matter how good they might have been? Because the reruns still come on TV.
They have already announced Expanse will end with Season 6. What they do about Alex, who can say?
I was going to be upset if they had to recast Amos. Alex can stay or go.
Unfortunately I think the weakest is Holden.
Ehh, I think Strait does ok. It’s a weird role tbf, they walk an odd line between Boy Scout Holden from Book 1 and Dark And Troubled Holden from some of the middle books.
Agreed. His randomly inserted Western accent can fuck off thank you. Even removed from his alleged horrible actions I’m glad he’s off the show (probably).
Yawn
Look, we’re all weak, baby! Sometimes a guy’s gotta trade up for a new set of wheels. But you made one mistake, you gotta keep your mitts off the kinder! Believe me, I thought about it myself a few times. But I took my business to the john! When you’re a one-man band, nobody gets hurt!
Holy shit dude. Get help.
How quickly we forget the classics. RIP Phil Hartman.
Cut him some slack. He’s 80 years old.
Holy shit, what is that from?
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/woody-allen-cold-opening/n10275Wow, I did not remember that Rob Schneider played Soon-Yi.
Is that something that someone needs to apologize for?
Here’s your star. I’ll be in the shower . . . for a while.
The bar is so low for men and yet they fail at basic decency. Ugh.Like, I don’t even have a problem if he’s using his celebrity status trying to get laid. As long as everybody involved in knowing what they’re getting into then you do you. But how hard is it to 1) not harass women in the process and 2) not go after teenagers?? There are a lot of damning screenshots in those twitter threads where women were coming forward with their experiences so it’s not just a case of he-said-she-said, it’s a clear pattern of predatory behaviour.I’m happy that they’re investigating this issue and seeing how serious everyone seems to take the issue I assume they’ll either recast the character or write him out entirely (I haven’t read the books so Idk how important he would be in potential upcoming seasons).
I’m amazed you’ve met every man on the planet.
Alex is pretty important for next season as the Roci crew does end up splitting up and he does stuff on Mars with Bobbie. That’s all I’ll really say on the topic without going into spoilers.
I mean, they already filmed S5 so Idk, maybe they could ditch him after that?
I was a member on STE – the group that was in direct contact with the cast and crew working to get the show picked up, and yes, we did have a lot of contact with Cas.And yes, he’s a massive douchebag whose self-inflated ego has its own orbit. The worst thing is, we had to keep quiet about him – and play along – for the sake of getting the show renewed.It feels good to get that off my chest, and I salute these brave women coming forward. This asshole is an easily replaceable fucking nobody.
Appreciate your account. This is going to make watching S5 uncomfortable, but I really really really hope they recast him going forward.
i was uncomfortable watching the deuce, but eventually i just basically ignored franco. why should one actor destroy a whole production?
Did we run out of famous people for this?
I’ve known enough jaw dropping good looking people to realize that they, even without money or a TV show, can get laid by other gorgeous people any night of the week just by walking into a bar. Why the fuck does anyone need to go out prowling like this? It’s as if even modest success lowers men’s standards, self-esteem and ethics to the fucking floor. As far as young women go, is middle to late twenties really that old to you? Pathetic.
As long as Wes is still good…
Lots of calls to recast the character at this point, men are pigs, etc. This may very well be the case. He is not going to be fired unless this independent investigation turns up evidence that the allegations are substantiated. Allegations do not equal crime/reprehensible behavior. Allegations equal need to investigate to determine if crime/reprehensible behavior occurred.
“Manipulate and coerce young women” it’s strange the way you people turn women into total retards with no brain incapable of advocating for themselves whenever it allows you to create a story about “toxic masculinity”. Sure hope it wasn’t underage women. Because that’s inexcusable.