Praise Kier! Severance Season 2's release is finally happening, as the series returns from a nearly three-year-long break.
The hit sci-fi thriller from Dan Erickson first debuted on Apple TV+ in February 2022, earning rave reviews for its mind-bending story, gripping characters, and biting social commentary.
The series follows a group of workers toiling away in the office of a fictional mega-corporation named Lumon; however, this particular form of corporate drudgery sees many of the company's workers undergo what is known as Severance, separating their work-based consciousness from their at-home mind.
6 Key Details Confirmed About Severance Season 2
When Will Severance Season 2 Be Released?
After nearly three years of waiting, fans will be excited to hear that a Severance Season 2 release date has been officially confirmed.
The hit psychological thriller will return to Apple TV+ on Friday, January 17 (almost two years after it was first renewed in April 2022), with new episodes debuting weekly thereafter. Season 2 will comprise 10 episodes, running through March 21, 2025.
Severance Season 2 breaks a frustrating streaming record for Apple TV+, marking the biggest gap between seasons for an original series on the platform.
Fans may be wondering why it took so long for the series to make its way back to their televisions. Well, those details remain scarce.
Production on the series was likely stalled due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that dominated Hollywood in 2023, eventually getting started in January 2024. It has also been rumored that the series had some behind-the-scenes drama which pushed its release.
Puck's Matthew Belloni posited in an April 2023 report that showrunner Dan Erickson and co-executive producer Mark Friedman had "ended up hating each other on the first season," causing multiple rewrites during the development of Season 2.
One of the series' most prominent directors and creative forces, Ben Stiller, later denied these rumors, posting on X (formerly Twitter), " We’re on the same really slow schedule we’ve always been on:"
"No one’s going to the break room. We’re on the same really slow schedule we’ve always been on. Same target air date we’ve always had. Love our fans and each other and we all are just working to make the show as good as possible."
The Severance Season 2 Cast Has Some Big New Additions
Heading into Severance Season 2, fans can expect some big new names to join its already-stacked cast.
While many of the Season 1 characters like Adam Scott's Mark Scout and Britt Lower's Helly will return to lead the brain-boggling proceedings, several A-list talents are set to make their series debut in the show's second season.
These include Star Wars actress Gwendoline Christie, Arrested Development star Alia Shawkat, and many more (per Variety). These new actor's specific roles have not yet been disclosed, but the series' first Season 2 trailer teased that at least some of them will be playing more employees at Lumon both Severed and not.
Below is a full list of the new additions to the Severance Season 2 cast:
- Bob Balaban
- Robby Benson
- Stefano Carannante
- Gwendoline Christie
- John Noble
- Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
- Alia Shawkat
- Merritt Wever
Season 2 Will Be "Darker" Than Season 1
According to Severance creator Dan Erickson, Season 2 is set to be a whole lot darker than Season 1.
In a December 2024 conversation with Vanity Fair, Erickson remarked, "I think things get darker," adding that Season 2 will see its main characters "in a scarier place:"
"I think things get darker. We very much wanted to put our heroes in a scarier place because Season 1 ends with them poking the bear. They form this little rebellion, and they’re able to achieve a modicum of success with it, but the question with season two was: What happens when the bear pokes back? What’s the fallout of this victory that they had? I think, without giving much away, the fallout is dire."
Erickson's fellow creative on the series, Ben Stiller (who has been outspoken online regarding fan comments surrounding the series), echoed this sentiment in the same interview, telling audiences that Season 2 will "pick up the story where it left off:"
"When [Season 1] came out, it was fun to look at all of the reactions and how people would kind of dig into theories. We wanted to pick up the story where it left off. We’re bringing the Innies to the Outie world and then will answer some questions by the end of the season. Hopefully we keep it enough of a mystery and intriguing enough that people want to keep following the story."
This "darker" comment may shock some, as Severance's first nine episodes are not exactly all sunshine and rainbows, as viewers watched Adam Scott's Mark Scout slowly have the reality of his Severed vocation fall apart around him.
However, seeing as how Season 1 ended on such a shocking cliffhanger with the series' central band of Severed workers sending a message to the outside world and are now living beyond the spotless veil of their false reality, it would make sense that Season 2 would embrace a darker tone.
Season 2 Will Expand the World of Severance
While Severance Season 1 very much focused on the Severance procedure as it relates to Lumon and its workforce, Season 2 has been confirmed to expand beyond that and really flesh out this sci-fi world.
Speaking with Esquire before Season 2 was officially greenlit, Dan Erickson revealed how the breaching of the wall that occurred to end Season 1 would affect a (at the time) potential second season:
"The severance procedure has the potential to change so much beyond the office. How does this affect the military? How does this affect religion? Are there relationship applications? If your marriage isn't working and you want to start fresh, can you both create marriage innies? From the very beginning, those questions felt too rich to ignore. We didn't want to just tell the story in one corner of the world. We wanted to really explore the sandbox."
He said that "there's definitely going to be some expansion of the world," including getting to dive into "more of the [Lumon] building" as well as the outside world:
Should we be lucky enough to do Season 2, which we're hoping for and planning on, then there's definitely going to be some expansion of the world. Within Lumon, we're going to see more of the building, and we’ll see more of the outside world, too."
Star Adam Scott Is Excited About 1 Season 2 Storyline
Another major storyline that has been confirmed to be expanded upon in Severance Season 2 is the complicated relationship between Adam Scott's Mark Scout and Britt Lower's Helly.
The pair shared a kiss in the penultimate episode of Season 1, which would be fine, but it came mere moments before Mark discovered (by way of his Innie's adventure into the outer world) that his wife Gemma was not only alive but was the Lumon guidance councilor his Innie has seen multiple times at work.
It is this complicated to and fro that Scott cannot wait to dive into in Season 2. He expressed such during a Variety interview from April 2022, calling where Season 1 left his character a "confusing cocktail of feelings:"
"It’s a confusing cocktail of feelings, because Mark is having these feelings for Helly, having never had feelings for a person before, and certainly didn’t even consider it for the first while they were together. First of all, it’s frowned upon down there, but also, it just didn’t occur to him. It’s not something that’s discussed — it’s just pure instinct how they end up coming together a bit. And so he has these feelings, and he does not really have those kinds of feelings for Miss Casey. So finding out that that is actually his wife is hugely confusing, and who knows where that will lead us."
He said that this Innie Mark revelation will be felt by Outie Mark, as things have boiled over for him as well:
"As far as Outie Mark goes, in that final episode, he is getting to a point where things have boiled over, as far as his self-destructiveness and his holding back moving on from Gemma, his wife who died. And when he arrives at that party, he is finally ready to move on from severance and from Lumon and also ready to move on from Gemma and heal a bit. I think he’s made some decisions in his life. And so this is all happening at an interesting time for Outie Mark, as well."
Severance Season 2 Will Likely Not Be the Last
While Severance Season 2 is the only future entry confirmed for the series, that does not mean the show will be done after this incoming batch of new episodes.
Season 3 has not been greenlit by Apple TV+; however, Ben Stiller has made it clear work has already started work on the third season behind the scenes (via Collider):
"You have a responsibility to the audience that you’re going somewhere with it. That’s always been a part of it for us, really understanding where it’s heading to, and Apple’s been really supportive of that and been sensitive to what the story is and not saying, "Okay, this is something that has to keep going as long as it’s successful." It should go as long as the story goes, and that’s something we have an idea of, and we’re working towards as we’re starting up our Season 3 work."
Whether that third season happens will ultimately depend on how Season 2 does, but if Season 1 was anything to go off of, a Season 3 announcement feels like a pretty good bet.
Severance Season 2 kicks off on Friday, January 17 on Apple TV+.
