If Queen of the Damned is Two Seasons, AMC Needs to Follow Apple TV’s Silo

Now that AMC gave the green light for Queen of the Damned to follow The Vampire Lestat, we’re thinking about how the studio could make the most of timing. We don’t know whether it will be one season or two, but if the show ends up being two seasons (and it should be!) then AMC needs to follow Apple TV’s example with Silo.

Apple TV gave the green light to Silo for two more seasons back in 2024. Based on Hugh Howey’s trilogy of books, four seasons will bring the show to a proper close, with the show slated to end with season 4.

The show filmed seasons 3 and 4 back-to-back, with Silo season 3 dropping in summer 2026 and season 4 planned for summer 2027. Silo has enormous sets and lots of special effects, leading to a prolonged post-production process.

“We’ll be shooting all of 2025 into early 2026,” showrunner Graham Yost said in a 2024 interview with Empire. “There’s a big location that we’re going to introduce toward the end of season 3 that plays a very big role in season 4. And because we shoot all 10 episodes [of each season] at the same time, we had to write season 3 and then basically go right into writing season 4.”

Filming back-to-back seasons might take a while longer, but it’s very practical. By filming two seasons at the same time, post-production work can continue seamlessly after one season is finished so that the next season is ready to go faster. Not only that, but actors can plan their schedules better, and sets – especially large ones – can be utilized to their fullest potential instead of starting and stopping and rebuilding.

The frustrating reality is that The Vampire Lestat just ended its season on July 19 and announced the new Queen of the Damned season on July 24. We don’t know how much work has been done on scripts for the new season, but if the show films in 2027 then it won’t arrive on our TV screens until 2028.

If AMC can give new showrunner Hannah Moscovitch the green light for two seasons, it makes perfect sense to film back to back. Take care of all of the filming at all of the locations, and then start work on post-production for the first of two seasons. As the first season airs, continue working on the second season. That way there isn’t such a long gap between seasons.

While it might sound like a big ask of the casts and crews to film two seasons back to back, it’s important to note that AMC’s other mega franchise, The Walking Dead, used to have 16-episode seasons. Eight episodes aired in the fall and the other eight aired in the spring, with the post-production teams working down to the deadline to roll each week’s episode out on time.

This was back in the pre-Covid, pre-SAG strike eras when television seasons were more than six to eight episodes. Somehow, it all worked. Somehow, they did it year after year. They still do this, more or less, with network television. Having 18-month to two-year gaps between new seasons is asking a lot of the audience, but also the cast and crew, who must balance current and future obligations and find ways to make it all work.

Silo followed a model that allows for new seasons to debut a year apart. AMC should think about following that same model when it comes to Queen of the Damned.