Last year, Apple TV+ debuted is new sci-fi series Silo, based on the bestselling novel series of the same name by Hugh Howey. It quickly became one of the streamer's biggest hits, so it's no surprise that they moved swiftly to get out the follow-up. Silo season 2 will premiere this November, around a year and a half after season 1, which is lightning fast in today's television landscape where two-year gaps or more between seasons are becoming the norm.
Now, we have our first trailer for Silo season 2! Watch, then we'll discuss it below. There will be spoilers for Silo season 1.
Silo season 2 will expand the world of the series
Silo takes place on a future post-apocalyptic Earth, where the last 10,000 people alive live in a massive underground bunker — the titular Silo — because the world above is too ruined to support human life. How is it ruined, exactly? Well, that's part of the mystery. The people of the Silo have been living underground for so many generations that no one really remembers how they ended up there in the first place.
The mysteries of the Silo gradually unraveled over the course of the first season, but there are still many questions left to be answered. Season 1 ended with Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson), an engineer who was suddenly elevated to become the sheriff of the Silo, finally going outside after unearthing a vast conspiracy to keep the Silo's residents in the dark about the surface world. She expected that it might turn out to be more hospitable than everyone was led to believe...but upon exiting, it turned out the world was barren. Now, she's stranded out there with limited oxygen in her environment suit and no way home.
Juliette made a huge impact on her fellow Silo residents. She was the first person to leave the bunker and not die just outside its door, instead going over the hill and leaving sight of the people watching from inside. What she found there promised even more mysteries: there were other Silos spread around the waste.
Season 2 looks like it'll pick up those threads and run with them. We get glimpses of Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins), the head of IT and de factor leader of the Silo, eulogizing Juliette's death . But the people don't buy it; count on some unrest ahead. Meanwhile, Juliette looks like she'll have to fight against the elements to stay alive as she seeks to unlock the secrets of other Silos. We get the barest glimpse of series newcomer Steve Zahn, who threatens Juliette when she tries to enter his Silo. We don't have a confirmation on Zahn's character yet, but it looks to me like he'll be playing Solo, a man Juliette encounters in Silo 17.
Additional cast for Silo season 2 includes Common as the IT enforcer Robert Sims, Harriet Walter as the agoraphobic mechanic Martha Walker, and Game of Thrones veteran Iain Glen as Juliette's father Dr. Peter Nichols.
Will Silo be the sci-fi show to break the two-year curse?
As much as I'm extremely excited for Silo on premise, a huge part of that excitement also stems from the fact that it's coming back so soon. Silo season 1 was excellent TV that didn't skimp on visual effects or sets or any of the other elements associated with big-budget genre shows, yet it's returning much faster than many of its competitors. We're talking about literally half the time between seasons compared to Apple TV+'s other big science fiction show, Severance, which aired its first season in 2022 and won't return for its second until early 2025.
We've been saying for a while now on our Take the Black podcast that the studio that figures out how to produce these sorts of genre TV shows faster than the rest will stand to win big. Even the most dedicated audiences get fatigued by waiting two years between seasons; it's just much harder to keep track of details and keep up enthusiasm with that kind of gap. Perhaps Apple TV+ has finally cracked the code with Silo.
Silo season 2 premieres on Apple TV+ on November 15. The second season consists of 10 episodes, which will air weekly until it wraps up on January 17, 2025.
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