Di team behind Silo dey talk about how dem dey manage di series as e dey get even bigger for season 3. Silo na complicated show so tey even di showrunner get confused sometimes.
While dem dey film di final seasons of di Apple TV sci-fi thriller, Graham Yost remember two instances where e mess up details: once na actor wey realize say conversation wey dem about to shoot suppose don happen before, di other involve di Japanese localization team wey point out say subtitle no match wetin dey happen for screen. For both instances, di problem ultimately don fix, but Yost reaction na di same: “Oh shit, you dey right.”
Keeping everything straight na one of di big challenges of working on such a complex series, and as Silo enter into its final two seasons, di challenge don increase. So e good say Yost get team wey dey work alongside am dey look for those mistakes. “E plenty to keep track of, but everybody dey pitch in,” e say, “and I love this sense of collaboration.”
Season 3 of Silo go start streaming on July 3rd, and e expand di story scope quite a bit. Di series follow di lives of di residents of a huge underground bunker hundreds of years for future. Di silo dey home to 10,000 people wey essentially dey live for a vertical city, one divided into layers wey each get their own jobs and cultures, from di mines at di bottom to di government up top. Di only way to navigate di silo na through a massive spiral staircase wey go from top to bottom, creating a very physical form of class division.
Initially e seem say di residents na di last remnants of humanity dey live for a postapocalyptic wasteland. But over di course of di first two seasons, e become clear say dem dey live for but one silo of many, each housing their own communities while isolated from di rest. Season 3 add a new wrinkle: showing how di world come to be dis way for di first place, a process wey start for a world wey look much like our own.
Di season 3 premiere dey constantly jump back and forth between di bleak future where we don spend di last two seasons and our present day, when di decisions wey dem make lead to everybody dey trapped inside underground bunkers. Things already dey complicated as di show pick up from last season — protagonist / silo mayor / reluctant revolutionary Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) don just become di first person to venture between silos and now dey suffer from memory loss — and di multiple timelines only ratchet dat up. “E plenty pieces you dey try to put together.”
Di cast of Silo all get different techniques for dealing with dis challenge, which become even harder given say scenes dey rarely shoot for chronological order. For some, daily team meetings with directors fit be an invaluable tool. “A lot of days, we go start di day with story time, and di director go go through where we dey, where we just come from, wetin happen next,” explain Alexandria Riley, wey play newly promoted authority figure Camille Sims for di show. “E already a complicated story anyway, but when shooting out of order, you do get a bit foggy.”
Ferguson note say di hair-and-makeup team fit be particularly helpful for tracking di story, as dem need to be on top of things like scars and burns to maintain consistency. Every detail count. “Di little changes wey you do get enormous ripple effects going forward,” she say. “E plenty pieces you dey try to put together,” add Common, wey play Camille husband Robert for di show. “E be our job to know where we dey, but thank god we get support, too. There be times when I go talk to Alex about something just to be reminded.” Di two actors even get separate rehearsals together to make sure dem get everything down.
Others take different approach. Jessica Henwick, for instance, join di main cast as di present-day investigative reporter Helen for season 3, and say say “I no read any scenes except my own. Because I be fan of di show, I want to preserve dat experience. I go watch season 3 as a fan and see wetin happen. I no know wetin happen except for our storyline.” Henwick na such a fan say, soon after dem cast am, she get a single goal for mind: “I go to di set and explore di stairs.”
One thing wey no help much, however, na delving into di source material. Silo dey based on a trilogy of books by author Hugh Howey; di first two seasons explore di first book, while di final two go wrap up di rest of di story. But plenty don change for di adaptation as di TV show dey attempt to both make Juliette a more visible figure for di central part of di story and update some of di plotlines to reflect present day concerns like AI. “I start reading di books and realize very quickly say dat no go help, because di books dey so different,” explain Ashley Zukerman, wey play a congressman for di present day storyline. E say say keeping both di novels and di TV show for e mind at di same time no go be helpful and instead find “say reading di whole scripts and then finding a way to forget [wetin e character no go know] na useful.”
With two seasons to go, Silo dey race toward a conclusion as e dey attempt to wrap everything up. Yost say say four seasons na always di plan, so di process don be figuring out how to fit everything into a set number of episodes. But since di final two seasons dem film back to back, e also mean say di Silo team don done get to worry about keeping all of those complicated plotlines straight. And as much as she say she go miss di experience of working on di show, there be one thing Ferguson dey excited to be done with beyond memorizing storylines. “I fucking hated running up and down those stairs,” she say.
