This article contains spoilers for Silo season 1 and the first two books of Hugh Howey’s Wool series.
The Apple TV+ series Silo has been a fairly faithful adaptation thus far, with the first season adapting the first book of Hugh Howey’s Wool series. However, book fans who were hoping for all of Wool to be covered were likely surprised to see the first season end with Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) going outside and discovering the existence of other silos, an event that occurs in the third part of Howey’s five part novel. This is a logical ending for the first season of the TV series, as it ends with a major reveal that disrupts what we knew about this world. But it also means that book readers may have to wait a little longer than expected for the series to dive into the events of the second book Shift.
In the last two parts of Wool, Juliette manages to walk to a nearby Silo, number 17 of 50, and finds only a few survivors – a man named Solo and a group of orphaned children. She learns that the Silos are connected, and tries to get a message to Lukas and Walker back home. Meanwhile, rebellion begins to break out in Juliette’s former home – Silo 18 – so she insists on finding her way back, promising Solo and the children that she’ll come back for them.
In Shift, however, Juliette doesn’t appear again until the end of the novel when she and Silo 1 administrator Donald make contact via radio. The book serves primarily as a prequel, giving us background on how the Silos came to be and the mysterious administrators that are tasked with keeping order throughout the system. One of these administrators, Donald, is the primary protagonist in Shift, living hundreds of years due to being cryogenically frozen when he isn’t needed to run Silo 1. Shift also gives us backstory on Solo and what happened to Silo 17.
Since there are only two parts left to adapt from Wool, it’s not totally outside the realm of possibility for some of Shift’s important backstory to be included. It doesn’t seem likely that season 2 will be a straight adaptation of the rest of book 1, as there may not be enough story left for a full season. But there likely wouldn’t be enough time to add on the entirety of book 2 either, as it covers many years of backstory. The most likely path for season 2 seems like an amalgamation of the two.
Having completed scripts prior to the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike that began May 2, production has already begun on season 2 of Silo. Rebecca Ferguson, who also serves as an executive producer on the show, recently told Variety that “The show gets darker. It doesn’t take a turn from what we know. But it becomes darker and grittier [in season 2].” According to Variety, they were able to speak with Ferguson during a break on set, and Ferguson also told Collider that she “I am doing this for some time in the future,” with regards to filming season 2.
While Silo could still surprise us and jump straight into the events of Shift and wait to show us the rest of the climactic events of Wool later into season 2 or even season 3, Rebecca Ferguson seems to be involved on set more than she would be if Juliette was only going to be in season 2 for the brief moment she’s in the second book. Juliette appears to still be the primary protagonist for the series going into season 2, and it will be interesting to see how Silo continues her story while expanding the world as deeply as the books do. Book readers may be disappointed to not quite know what will happen next season, but not knowing may just make the wait for next season even more exciting.
All episodes of Silo season 1 are now streaming on Apple TV+