Here’s How Long Apple’s Silo Show Could Run
Apple TV+’s adaptation of the books by Hugh Howey has a good four seasons in it, producers say.
Silo is one of our favorite new genre shows of 2023, and there’s good reason to hope that the Apple TV+ series might enjoy a nice run.
Based on the Wool novel series by author Hugh Howey, Silo stars Rebecca Ferguson as one of the last surviving people living inside a sealed Silo beneath the surface of a devastated planet Earth. The Silo’s cardinal rule is that anyone who expresses a desire to go outside will have their wish granted, and will be given a wool cloth to clean the outside sensors and clear the view of the surface for the rest of the population.
But — as seen several times in the show’s 10-episode first season — this is inevitably a one-way trip.
“I believe that the show has an ending, and I know when that is,” Ferguson said in a new interview with Collider. The actress also serves as an executive producer on the series.
“To be honest, I don’t think it’s a secret. The books are the books. It’s three books, and the three books are divided into four seasons. So I believe, unless any Apple person is gonna jump on, I think we’re absolutely fine with saying Season 1, we’ve done. Season 2 is shot and coming out, and we’re now looking at green-lighting Seasons 3 and 4. And I think we would film them maybe together, and that would be the end.”
Ferguson also plays Lady Jessica in the Dune film series. On Silo her character, Juliette Nichols, begins as an engineer in the bowels of the Silo who finds herself recruited to be the community’s new sheriff. This sets her off on an investigation into the fate of her predecessor.
Howey’s world currently consists of a trilogy of novels — Wool, Shift, and Dust, published between 2011 and 2013 — plus three short stories and a graphic novel adaptation of Wool. Howey said on social media in 2021 that he is working on a fourth book in the series.
Running the television series adaptation over four seasons, and around 40 episodes, feels like a good stretch to allow this story to breathe. But, as an adaptation of a novel trilogy, a closed-ended plan for plotting out the story will also help to avoid unnecessary padding or Silo otherwise overstaying its welcome. This is not an open-ended world for storytelling but a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end.
The fact that Howey himself is continuing the story of this world, though, opens up other possibilities — perhaps something like a spin-off, should Silo enjoy a successful run on Apple TV+.
Howey also wrote 2015’s Beacon 23, which has been adapted into a television series at MGM+.
Meanwhile filming on Season 2 of Silo has been completed, and we’re looking for Apple TV+ to announce when the show will make its return.
Have you watched Silo? What do you think of the story so far? Post your thoughts in the comments!
