AMC has announced that the network’s critically acclaimed first anthology series, “The Terror,” has been renewed.
A 10-episode second season is slated to air this year. Filming began in January in Vancouver.
The next iteration, co-created and executive-produced by Alexander Woo (“True Blood”) and Max Borenstein (“Kong: Skull Island,” “Godzilla”), 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.
George Takei (“Star Trek”) — who as a child was incarcerated along with his family by the government — will be a series regular as well as a consultant to ensure historical accuracy. He will play Yamato-san, a former fishing captain and community elder.
An outspoken civil rights advocate, Takei has sought to educate the public about the Japanese American WWII experience through a Broadway musical, “Allegiance,” in which he plays both a grandfather and a Nisei veteran. A film of the play is shown in theaters nationwide every year.
The cast of “The Terror” also includes:
Derek Mio (“Hawaii Five-0”) as Chester Nakayama, who leaves the community to join the Army.
Kiki Suzukane (“Lost in Space”) as Yuko, a mysterious woman from Chester’s past.
Miki Ishikawa (“9-1-1”) as Amy, a Nakayama family friend.
Shingo Usami (“Unbroken”) as Henry Nakayama, Chester’s father.
Naoko Mori (“Everest”) as Asako Nakayama, Chester’s mother.
Josef Kubota Wladyka (“Narcos”) will direct the first two episodes.
The second season will also once again be executive-produced by legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott.
“‘The Terror’ has given us the opportunity to take a unique approach to the anthology format,” said David Madden, president of original programming for AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios. “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.
“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.’”
Added Woo, who will also serve as showrunner: “I’m deeply honored to be telling a story set in this extraordinary period. 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,” Borenstein said. “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 1 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. Vulture called the premiere season “a horrifying 19th-century nightmare,” the Daily Beast called it “TV’s most terrifying new show,” and TV Insider said it was “literate and philosophical, yet shocking and terrifically scary.”
Watch the entire first season available now on amc.com and AMC apps for mobile, Fire TV, XBox One, Apple TV, Roku and Chromecast.