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.
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.
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==