The Terror Season 2 Greenlit, Will Be Set in World War II

AMC today announced that it has renewed its popular and critically acclaimed anthology series The Terror for a second season. The next iteration of The Terror anthology will be set during World War II and center on an uncanny specter that menaces a Japanese-American community from its home in Southern California to the internment camps to the war in the Pacific. The Terror Season 2 is co-created and executive produced by Alexander Woo (True Blood) and Max Borenstein (Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla). Woo is also set to serve as showrunner.

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The next season of The Terror anthology is expected to air on AMC in 2019 with 10 episodes. The series is distributed internationally by AMC Studios and premieres across AMC Global markets as well as in certain Amazon Prime Video territories. The Terror Season 2 is executive produced by Ridley Scott and is an AMC Studios production, produced by Scott Free, Emjag Productions and Entertainment 360.

Season 1 of The Terror was the number two new drama on cable for the current television season and a top 10 drama on ad-supported cable overall, well-received by critics and audiences alike. Vulture said The Terror was “a horrifying 19th century nightmare.” The Daily Beast called it “Stunning. TV’s most terrifying new show.” TV Insider said it was “literate and philosophical, yet shocking and terrifically scary.”

“’The Terror’ has given us the opportunity to take a unique approach to the anthology format. We loved the concept of beginning with an actual historical event and overlaying it with a fictional horror element, and we are immensely proud of this show’s combination of cinematic scope and intimate character work. We are thrilled to announce a second season and dramatize one of the most chilling and important events of the 20th Century, guided by the vision of the gifted Alexander Woo and Max Borenstein,” said David Madden, president of original programming for AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios. “Our deep appreciation goes to the persistently creative and passionate showrunning team of David Kajganich and Soo Hugh, the incomparable Ridley Scott and the rest of the producing team, and the outstanding cast led by Jared Harris for launching this concept and leaving us on the precipice of terrifying new adventures as we continue with the next chapter of ‘The Terror.’”

“I’m deeply honored to be telling a story set in this extraordinary period,” said Woo. “We hope to convey the abject terror of the historical experience in a way that feels modern and relevant to the present moment. And the prospect of doing so with a majority Asian and Asian-American cast is both thrilling and humbling.”

“As a history-buff and genre geek (not to mention a conscious American today), it’s clear that truth is always scarier than fiction,” said Borenstein. “This season of ‘The Terror’ uses as its setting one of the darkest, most horrific moments in our nation’s history. The Japanese-American internment is a blemish on the nation’s conscience — and one with dire resonance to current events. I’m thrilled that AMC is giving us the chance to use that darkness as the inspiration for what I hope will be a trenchant, terrifying season of TV.”

Season 2 of The Terror anthology series is co-created and executive produced by Alexander Woo and Max Borenstein, from an idea by Borenstein. Woo, who is currently in an overall development deal with AMC, serves as showrunner. The series is an AMC Studios production produced by Scott Free, Emjag Productions and Entertainment 360. “The Terror” is also executive produced by Ridley Scott, Dan Simmons, David W. Zucker, Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert and Guymon Casady.

The first season of The Terror was inspired by a true story about the Royal Navy’s perilous voyage in 1847 while attempting to discover the Northwest Passage. Frozen, isolated and stuck at the end of the earth, The Terror Season 1 highlighted all that can go wrong when a group of men, desperate to survive, struggle not only with the elements but with each other.