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, with a second season, subtitled Infamy, premiering on August 12, 2019.
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 serve 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, which has no narrative connection to the first 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, "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".

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, Executive 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 Sailing 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 Inuit 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.

Possible third season
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.

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% "certified fresh" rating based on 69 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 a 80% "certified fresh" rating based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 7.0/10. 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
Notes
References
External links

The Terror at IMDb
The Terror at TV Guide
"Behind the Scenes of AMC's The Terror". scienceandfilm.org. Interview with historical advisor Matthew Betts.