Silo wrapped its second season on Apple TV+ last week, and it left us with a whole lot of questions. Over the course of its second season, the science fiction series starring Rebecca Ferguson gradually peeled back more and more layers; by the end, we were just starting to learn more about the people who are pulling the strings on the entire silo project. The rest of those details await in season 3, which will dive into material from Shift, the second book in Hugh Howey's book trilogy.
Silo gave us a pretty wild glimpse of what's to come at the end of season 2, with a flashback into the distant past featuring a freshman congressman named Donald (Ashley Zukerman) and a reporter named Helen (Jessica Henwick). They were meeting in a bar in Washington D.C., which is the first time we've ever truly gotten a glimpse at the world before the apocalypse that forced the remnants of humanity into underground silos. Season 3 will explore this further; I'd wager we're going to see a lot more of Zukerman and Henwick in the show.
These scenes were much more brightly lit than Silo fans are used to; many complained about Juliette's season 2 storyline in particular having low lighting. She spent nearly all of her time in the abandoned Silo 17. There's no electricity there, and thus no lights. Personally, this isn't something I noticed at all, but then again, I'm one of the rare viewers who doesn't think the Game of Thrones episode "The Long Night" needed to be any brighter.
TV Line asked showrunner Graham Yost whether season 3 will be lit any brighter. Rather than give a straight answer, Yost referenced the fact that Silo will feature more outdoor scenes — so of course those will be brighter. “I met someone at the Austin Television Festival, who was doing a show in England, and I said, ‘Do you have a good location scout, a good locations person?’ And she looked at me and said, ‘Locations? In Silo??’ I said, ‘Locations, in Silo,'” he recalled with a laugh. “So yes, we will be outdoors, and we will be in the world, and there will be sunshine.”
This juxtaposition isn't just for aesthetics; it also helps drive home the tragedy of the world that was lost by the time of the silos. “Something that [executive producer/writer] Fred Golan said was, ‘Let’s make every effort to make the world that we see outside beautiful, so that we’re reminded of what’s been lost,'" Yost said.
Silo season 3 will return to Silo 17 — expect more Solo!
However, when it came to brightening the scenes inside of the Silos, Yost stuck to his guns. He confirmed we'll be seeing more of Silo 17, which means more dark, bleak interiors. “We do go back to Silo 17," he added. “And remember, they’ve got a very big power issue there, so they don’t have a lot of light.”
So if you think it's too dark in Silo 17, too bad! Yost isn't too concerned about it, and honestly, I think that's the right decision. We're going for atmosphere, people. “Listen, I’m not going to defend it. It’s just the way it plays. And sometimes stuff looks one way in a dark editing room,” he said. “When we showed the first episode on a big screen in London, it looked fantastic, because motion picture screens are very bright. So I just encourage everyone to crank up the brightness [at home], and you’ll see a difference.”
Silo is currently filming its third season; when it returns, probably sometime in 2026, you can bank on it having both dark and light scenes. Best start calibrating your televisions now!
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h/t ScreenRant