The Terror (TV series)

The Terror is an American supernatural horror drama anthology television series developed for AMC. The series is named after Dan Simmons's 2007 novel, which serves as the basis for the first season. It premiered on March 25, 2018. A second season, subtitled Infamy, premiered on August 12, 2019. In February 2024, the series was renewed for a third season, subtitled Devil in Silver, based on the novel of the same name by Victor LaValle and is set to premiere in 2026.

The series covers supernatural events occurring amidst a unique historical backdrop in each season. The first season was developed by David Kajganich and is a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin's lost expedition to the Arctic from 1845 to 1848. Kajganich and Soo Hugh served as co-showrunners. Featured in the cast are Jared Harris as Captain Francis Crozier, Tobias Menzies as Commander James Fitzjames, Paul Ready as Dr. Harry Goodsir, and Ciarán Hinds as Franklin. The second season was co-created by Alexander Woo and Max Borenstein and is mostly set in an American-run Japanese internment camp during World War II. It stars Derek Mio, Kiki Sukezane, Cristina Rodlo, Shingo Usami, Naoko Mori, Miki Ishikawa, and George Takei.

Premise

The Terror

The first season begins with the Royal Navy's polar explorer ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror having recently left Beechey Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, heading south toward King William Island into uncharted territory, seeking to find and confirm the existence and navigability of the fabled Northwest Passage. The ships are soon frozen and trapped in the ice, and those aboard must survive the harsh weather conditions and each other, while being stalked by an elusive menace.

The Terror: Infamy

The second season takes place on the west coast of the United States during World War II and centers on the Japanese folklore of bakemono, which harasses a Japanese American community in Southern California.

The Terror: Devil in Silver

The third season follows Pepper, a man who is wrongfully committed to psychiatric hospital, where he must deal with adversarial patients and doctors, as well as the supernatural.

Cast and characters

Season 1

Main

• Jared Harris as Captain Francis Crozier, Commanding Officer, HMS Terror, and expedition second-in-command
• Tobias Menzies as Commander James Fitzjames, First Officer, HMS Erebus
• Paul Ready as Assistant Surgeon Harry Goodsir, HMS Erebus
• Adam Nagaitis as Caulker's Mate Cornelius Hickey, HMS Terror
• Ian Hart as Ice Master Thomas Blanky, HMS Terror
• Nive Nielsen as Lady Silence, a Netsilik woman
• Ciarán Hinds as Captain Sir John Franklin, Commanding Officer, HMS Erebus, and expedition leader

HMS Erebus

HMS Terror

Others

Season 2

Main

• Derek Mio as Chester Nakayama (born Taizo Tanabe)
• Kiki Sukezane as Yuko Tanabe
• Cristina Rodlo as Luz Ojeda
• Shingo Usami as Henry Nakayama
• Naoko Mori as Asako Nakayama
• Miki Ishikawa as Amy Yoshida
• George Takei as Nobuhiro Yamato

Recurring

Episodes

Season 1 (2018)

Season 2: Infamy (2019)

Production

Season 1

After the success of the show The Walking Dead, the American cable TV network AMC planned to create a horror TV series based on the novel The Terror. In March 2016, it was confirmed that AMC ordered 10 episodes of the show, with an expected premiere date in 2018.

David Kajganich and Soo Hugh serve as co-showrunners, while Kajganich penned the adaptation. Ridley Scott, Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert, David W. Zucker, and Guymon Casady are executive producers. In September 2016, it was announced that Tobias Menzies was cast as a series lead and the showrunners were seeking an Inuk woman, between the ages of 16 and 30, to play an unspecified 'major character', most likely Lady Silence.

Most of the scenes on the ice were created using CGI.

Season 2

The second season, titled The Terror: Infamy, and consisting of 10 episodes, is co-created by Max Borenstein and Alexander Woo, who also serves as the showrunner.

Derek Mio plays the lead role of Chester Nakayama, a son of Japanese born immigrants who joins the army. George Takei plays Yamato-san, a former fishing captain and community elder who was imprisoned with his family in two Japanese-American internment camps during WWII. Also cast are Kiki Sukezane as Yuko, a mysterious woman from Chester's past; Shingo Usami as Henry Nakayama, Chester's father; and Naoko Mori as Asako Nakayama, Chester's mother; and Miki Ishikawa as Amy, a Nakayama family friend. Takei also serves in a consulting role to ensure the accuracy of historical events and storytelling. C. Thomas Howell was cast as Retired Major Hallowell Bowen, an official with the War Relocation Authority whose "presence looms over the Japanese-American characters in the story."

Josef Kubota Wladyka directed the first two episodes of the season. Production began on January 14, 2019, in Vancouver.

Season 3

In January 2020, it was reported by Deadline Hollywood that AMC president Sarah Barnett had expressed interest in renewing The Terror for a third season and that AMC and Scott Free Productions were discussing plot ideas. In February 2024, AMC announced that the series would be renewed for a third season, subtitled Devil in Silver, consisting of six episodes that would premiere in 2025. The season is based on the novel of the same name by Victor LaValle. Chris Cantwell and LaValle serve as writers and executive producers. Karyn Kusama, also an executive producer, directed the first two episodes. Dan Stevens was cast in the lead role and also serves as an executive producer. The rest of the cast includes Judith Light, CCH Pounder, Chinaza Uche, Hampton Fluker, Aasif Mandvi, John Benjamin Hickey, Stephen Root, Hayward Leach, Michael Aronov, Marin Ireland, and Philip Ettinger. It is set to premiere in 2026.

Release

The first season premiered on AMC in the United States and Canada on March 25, 2018, and concluded on May 21, 2018. It was released worldwide on Amazon Prime Video in every other country where the service is present (except Canada, the UK and some Middle Eastern countries) starting March 26, 2018. Amazon released most of the first season ahead of its broadcast on AMC. In the United Kingdom, The Terror premiered on AMC on April 24, 2018, and BBC Two on March 3, 2021.

Reception

Critical response

Season 1

The first season received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a 94% rating based on 70 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A thriller wrapped in a prestige drama package, The Terror makes for gripping, atmospheric supernatural horror." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the season has a score of 76 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Season 2

The second season also received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an 80% rating based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Real-world and supernatural horrors collide in Infamy, an exceptionally well-crafted ghost story that creeps under the skin and stays there." On Metacritic, the season has a score of 75 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ratings

Season 1

Season 2

Awards and nominations

Influence

The 2024 novel The Ministry of Time was conceived by British-Cambodian writer Kaliane Bradley while watching The Terror; Graham Gore, who appears in the first season, is one of the main characters of the novel, a science fiction romance story that sees him transported from the doomed expedition into a distant future where he enters a romance with the protagonist.