From show creator Graham Yost (Justified) and based on the bestselling trilogy of novels by Hugh Howey, the Apple TV+ series Silo (which has already been picked up for a second season) explores the community of 10,000 living within a giant underground silo that protects them from the toxic and deadly outside world. The strict rules they live by are presented as protection, but are really meant to prevent rebellion, with consequences that are sure to lead to the demise of anyone who disobeys.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, executive producer Yost talked about how he came to adapt Howey’s books for television, what drew him to this story, what makes Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) a great main character, making changes in the adaptation, the role of race and gender in this community, and leaving audiences with a visual moment that will make them anticipate a second season.

Collider: When you were approached about adapting these novels into a series, did you immediately see what the series could be? If you’re going to do a series, do you have to immediately see it, or you feel like you’re not the right person to do that?

GRAHAM YOST: That is the answer. I really do believe that. It’s been proven, time and time again, don’t take something on unless you love it. There’s no point in doing something, and wanting to change it and make it something that it’s not. There had been a first go around, about eight years or so ago, when people were trying to get the rights. AMC got the rights and Sony didn’t, and I was part of the Sony package. But I read all the books, so I knew the project, and when I went to Apple, they told me that they were gonna make a deal with AMC to do it with them, and was I interested? And I said, “Yes, I am,” because I could tell that it had legs. There was enough story there, in the three novels, to create a series out of. It also had a great mystery that just kept on going deeper and deeper, literally. It was enough of a well-built world that we, in a writers’ room could add to it and figure out what was felt like it was right in that world. And then, most importantly, it had Juliette, who’s just a great main character. (Author) Hugh [Howey] and I totally agree on loving a reluctant hero and loving someone who doesn’t want to be the savior of the last 10,000 people on earth, but maybe that’s your destiny. She just wants to find out what happened to her boyfriend. That’s all she wants. And then, it becomes one thing after another.

Image via Apple TV+

She’s just a simple girl with a simple question.

YOST: Just a girl, standing here before a dead body, trying to figure out how that happened.

What has it been like to work with Hugh Howey through this process? Is it a situation where, when you’re deciding what to add or subtract or keep, you have those talks with him, or is he not that directly involved?

YOST: We hit it off, before we even got together in any kind of room, and then we had the mini-room where he saw how I like to work and I saw how more than amenable to change he was, and that he was eager to makes changes. There’s a part of him that loved the idea of getting to rewrite the books and try something new, and he was really just open to everything. He could tell that we wanted to paint within the bounds. We had to invent a lot for the first season because we needed 10 episodes. I knew where the season should end, so we needed enough story to get us there. There’s a small mention in the book that her boyfriend was killed under mysterious circumstances, and that’s how she and Holston met. We turned that into a big story for the season. There were a couple of other things we decided to shift and push down, like the reveal of who the big bad is. We wanted to set up someone else, and then reveal that the big bad is later on. With things like that, he was fine. We also changed the gender of Walker, who was a man in the book, but I wanted Juliette to have a mother figure. There’s a bunch of actresses in that age range who are just so spectacular that when the first choice couldn’t do it, we got someone equally great, in Harriet Walter, and were absolutely blessed with that.

The people in this world feel very familiar, and even the political aspects of this story feel very familiar. There are Black individuals in positions of authority, with nothing made of their race. And there are women in positions of authority, with nothing specifically made of their gender. Race and gender don’t seem to have the same significance in this world. Was that something that you wanted to make a point of subtracting from the structure of this community?

YOST: Absolutely. If we get to do further seasons, you will find out more about that rebellion. You will find out about who built the silo and why and when, and all that stuff. And you will find out that there’s a real thing about memory, and trying to eradicate memory, as a way to control the populace and also, frankly, save them from the trauma that they’ve gone through. So, people have forgotten to be racist. They have forgotten to be sexist. That’s something that’s handed down by history. We don’t like those people who live over the hill because we’ve been told that we don’t like them. It has nothing to do with who they are. Also, they’re united by this common enemy, which is death. They want the silo to survive. Their project is just surviving. In wartime, certain things change, like the role of women in society during World War II, and finally getting Black troops and Black fighter pilots in World War II, because there’s a necessity. And then, as soon as that necessity goes away, all the sexism and racism comes back. These people never leave their struggle. If you remember everything, you don’t forgive everything. But if you forget, you can lose your soul. I love that dichotomy.

Image via Apple TV+

I always find it interesting, where a storyteller decides to end a story. Did you always know where you wanted to end this season? Was this always the endpoint? How hard is it to leave questions that you might never be able to answer?

YOST: That last part, you just have to let go of. You have to tell the story in the best way, to make the best first season, and you can’t make it going, “What if we don’t get to do anymore?” Well, then you didn’t get to do anymore. You gave it your best shot, and you came up short. If that’s what happens, then that’s what happens. I had a lot of confidence in the writers, and a lot of confidence in the directors, and then the cast. But more than that, I had a lot of confidence in Apple, frankly. I knew that they would give the show what it needed. That doesn’t mean we don’t want more. We always want more money and more time. That’s the history of filmed entertainment. But I can’t think of a better ending to the season. It’s both triumphant and horribly depressing, but not depressing. But what the hell? But it’s mystifying. I love those moments in movies where you go, “What?!” And then, you’ve gotta wait a year to find out.

I love that it’s a visual reveal because it leaves you with that to really think about.

YOST: Right. What does that really mean? That was the goal. We wanted there to be a big answer, and there are big answers, with what happens to Juliette. Something happens that’s never happened before, as far as anyone knows. And then, there’s a whole new layer of questions. Hopefully, the deal that we’re making with the audience is, if we’ve done this and we get to do more, you know we’re gonna to tell you what happens and we’re not gonna string it out, interminably. It’s not gonna go for years and years and years. It will be a finite number of seasons, if we get to do them, and we will answer all the questions, hopefully in a way that you don’t expect. Some people will guess and some people will read the books and know, but for people who are just watching the show, hopefully it will be satisfying.

Silo is available to stream at Apple TV+.