‘Silo’ Showrunner Graham Yost and Author Hugh Howey Discuss Adapting Hit Sci-Fi Novels Into Thrilling Apple TV+ Series (Exclusive)

The Silo novel series has been adapted into a new hit series over at Apple TV+, with author Hugh Howey being heavily involved with bringing his brilliant sci-fi story from page to screen. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future and follows a society of people who have been living in an underground silo for many generations, never leaving or wondering why they’re there. PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with Howey and series showrunner Graham Yost to discuss what it was like adapting the thrilling books into a show.

“It was just paying attention to the things that we all, as the writer’s room, just responded to in the books, which was the books. So we’re not going to go too far off,” Yost replied when asked about his approach to taking turning the novel source material into a series. “There were some things that we had to build out to create a first season.” The producer then confirmed that Silo isn’t “just another post-apocalyptic, dystopian thing… It’s sort of like a political conspiracy thriller to a degree, of the 1970s.” However, their story is set in a massive doomsday bunker “where these last 10,000 people on Earth live.”

“There’s this huge mystery of what happened and why are they there, and who built the silo, why,” Yost added. “That kind of thing just absolutely gets me. For example, one of the movies we refer to all the time is All the President’s Men, how you slowly find these things out. It’s very cool, the twists and the turns.”

Yost also noted that while “the mystery aspect of it” was “the first thing” that drew him to the project,” Mission: Impossible actress Rebecca Ferguson’s Silo character Juliette was the second and “most important.” Yost explained, “I love when a lead is a character like that. We had this deep bond over the reluctant hero. She didn’t set out to save the last 10,000 people on Earth, but it’s going to be finally up to her, and she’s going to have to do it or not, but that’s just the way it broke.”

While Silo was an opportunity for Yost to explore a story he was a fan of, for Howey it was a chance to be part of bringing his vision to life and even expanding on it. “I loved tossing out new ideas,” Howey said, then quipping, “Graham was always trying to reel me back in and keep us focused on the book.” Yost joked that he’d have to say, “Okay, Hugh, you can go write another book about that world.”

Sharing some of what he was most excited to explore, Howey said, “I love that we got to show Holston (David Oyelowo) and Juliet together working together, which we don’t get in the book. We got to flesh some things out and expand them and really be patient. If we had adapted this into a film, we would have to just cut things out and tell a Reader’s Digest version.” He confessed that he is “a fan of these stories as well” as being the author, “so the amount of fan service… was a thrill for me.” 

Detailing what it was like to work with other writers on adapting his story, Howey offered, “To be in a room collaborating with other very talented writers, instead of just slaving away by yourself, we got to pull our talents and ideas together and see what germinated out of that. It was a lot of fun.” While collaborating is not new to the writer, Howey noted, “I’ve done it with readers. I’ve done it with editors and publishers in a limited capacity. I’ve been in a couple other writer rooms, but this is the first thing that’s gotten made out of those conversations.”

“I have learned over the years, I love collaborative storytelling,” He added. “In fact, I think the way the book came out in a serialized fashion where I was hearing from readers while I was releasing the books, in itself was a collaborative type of storytelling. The first two episodes of Silo are now streaming, followed by one new episode weekly every Friday through June 30, exclusively on Apple TV+.