A version of this feature was first published in January 2025.
Warning: Spoilers for Silo season 2 episode 10, and for Hugh Howey’s novel Shift (so potential Silo season 3 spoilers) ahead.
As Silo season 3 nears, we’re getting very close to finding out what that jaw-dropping ending to season 2 will mean for the future of the series, and whether the next instalment can live up to the previous instalments. Never fear, though, as the best is still to come.
Season 3 of the Apple TV+ hit will be based on Hugh Howey’s second novel in the Wool trilogy, Shift, which goes back in time around 300 years to show what exactly happened when the silos were first built.
It’s told through the perspectives of various different influential characters, but the final episode of Silo season 2 has already introduced us (albeit very briefly) to the most interesting of them: Daniel Keene (who is known as Donald in the book).
In the book, Juliette’s story is entirely put aside for almost the whole novel to make way for Donald’s – and the novel is all the better for it, as we get to know him inside out and are treated to even more bombshell revelations and twists and turns.
Trust me, the revelation at the end of season 1 that there are dozens of silos barely scratches the surface.
But showrunner Graham Yost has established that this won’t be the case in the TV show and that Juliette will be more present in season 3 than she is in Shift, suggesting that he’s planning to change the chronology.
If that’s the case, there are various aspects of the novel I’m desperately hoping he still focuses on and does justice – whether they come in season 3 or whether we have to wait a little longer for them in season 4.
First is the character development of Donald Keene. Throughout the course of Shift, we follow Donald from a naive and unquestioning congressman, to a cold administrator in Silo 1, to a man haunted by the knowledge of everything that’s come to pass.
What makes his story all the more interesting (spoiler warning!) is that it’s told over hundreds of years.
Following the building of the silos, Donald is one of many people to be cryogenically frozen, and woken up when there’s a world-threatening issue that the current administrator of Silo 1 (the silo that has oversight and control over the rest of them) is unable to deal with – an issue like a rebellion, for instance.
That means we get to see Donald in various different stages of his life, and with various different levels of understanding about what’s happened to him and what he’s done to the world.
Many of his actions are absolutely abominable and inexcusable – but, thanks to the levels of care that are taken with his character, and the nuances that are built up from dedicating so much time to him, it’s easy to understand what made him the way he is.
Donald’s story is not only the most interesting in the series, it’s the most important, as it hugely expands the world of Silo, giving us a lot of answers as to why the world is the way that it is.
It’s a truly tragic tale that somehow humanises the architect of so much destruction, and paves the way for us to return to Silo 18 with the knowledge of how it came to be.
Along with Donald’s character development comes one of the best twists in the entire book series – a revelation about another character, Troy. I won’t spoil it here, but you’re going to have to go and read the books if you want to experience it, because it’s going to be impossible to translate to the TV series, due to it being very specific to the medium of the novel.
While the execution of this specific reveal is going to have to change, there are plenty of bombshell reveals that the Silo TV series will be able to pull off, and I’m hoping Yost takes as much time with these as he has done with the first book in the trilogy.
One thing that makes me nervous about this is that the first book, Wool, had two seasons dedicated to it, whereas it seems the next two books, Shift and Dust, will only have one apiece, because the series is set to conclude after season 4.
I’m desperately hoping this doesn’t mean that Yost has to rush the adaptation of Shift and, consequently, parts of Donald’s story to have room to wrap up Juliette’s story. Shift is a tale that, by its very design of being told over hundreds of years, needs to take its time and can’t be rushed.
Then there’s the complete change in scale. So far, the Silo TV series has done an incredible job of simultaneously feeling claustrophobic and yet giving us the sense of an expansive wider world (not least with the closing shot of season 1 which suggests the existence of thousands of people living in other silos) – but this is a lot easier when it only takes place in one or two silos.
Season 3 is going to have to do this on a whole new scale as we’re transported back in time to a world that looks rather familiar to ours, as we witness a catastrophic event, as we’re introduced to entirely new and hugely influential characters, and as we grow all too familiar with the dealings of Silo 1.
Shift is one of those sequels that manages to completely improve upon the original (in my opinion, in the same way that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire does). Once the world of Silo was established, Howey was able to play with it and to tease out bombshell revelations that only enrich the series as a whole.
So far, Yost has proven himself as a master storyteller, skilfully adapting Howey’s first book into a TV phenomenon, so perhaps I shouldn’t be worried at all. He and Howey have both made it clear that they work closely together on all major changes from the books, and, actually, the TV series has so far managed to add in more details than it’s taken away.
Here’s hoping that the same approach is taken with Shift, and if it is, fans can be safe in the knowledge that the story has only really just begun.
Silo season 3 starts July 3 on Apple TV – sign up to Apple TV now.
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