One of the biggest challenges you can face when you run a show centered on a single mystery is knowing precisely where the story’s going before the audience does. When you’ve got to plan for so many twists, turns, reveals, and long-running character arcs, you absolutely need to plan ahead. Fortunately for fans, Silo creator Graham Yost says that’s always been something he’s done. Speaking during an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub at San Diego Comic-Con, the showrunner explained that the Apple TV+ sci-fi drama is developed so far in advance that the actors can sit with him and hear their entire arcs planned out in front of them ahead of production beginning. Imagine the level of organization? A small miracle.
Discussing his collaborative relationship with the cast, Yost revealed that Silo’s production schedule requires the writing team to stay well ahead of filming, and that long-term planning allows him to share future storylines with actors before they reach the page. “Part of the reality is we had to be writing so far in advance because of the complexity of doing this show, that we knew what was going to happen,” Yost explained. “I can still remember toward the end of Season 1, sitting down with Rebecca in one of the jail cells and pitching her Season 2, and just watching her face and knowing how much it was landing with her.” Yost said he enjoys giving performers a roadmap for their characters, something several members of the cast praised during the conversation.
“I love telling that the actor literally what’s going to happen in the next season, and those were those were fun times, and the support from the acting is great. It’s the reason why we didn’t get any notes. It was fine. We just had not had any questions about any scenes, ever, from anyone, at any point.”
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
Jessica Henwick Says More Showrunners Should Do the Same
Jessica Henwick described Yost’s openness as surprisingly rare in television, revealing that many productions deliberately avoid telling actors where their stories are heading, and she went on to make a compelling point while criticizing the philosophy behind that choice, as she felt it was to the detriment of the projects. “But you know how rare that is? A showrunner will say, ‘This is the story?’ That’s really rare,” said Henwick. “I find it kind of infantilizing that they’re ‘doing it for you,’ and you go, ‘No, that hinders me from doing my job.’” Yost responded with a funny line that had a lot of truth behind it, saying that when showrunners or creators tend to claim that they want to protect the actors so they can act in the moment, it’s simply a lie: “Translation for that is, we don’t know.”
