UPDATED (February 21, 2024): Filming has begun on Severance season 2 and Apple TV+ has released the first official behind-the-scenes image from the set. Ben Stiller has also teased fans with where the plot of Severance is going in season 2!
Severance Season 2 is officially on the way, with fans looking forward to several updates regarding its casting and upcoming release.
Apple TV+ found itself with another wildly successful hit TV series in Severance, whose first season was nominated for 14 Emmy awards thanks to the efforts of show creator Dan Erickson, director Ben Stiller, and countless others.
Considering that success, it's no surprise that Apple renewed Severance for Season 2, with the studio releasing a video that said "You'll feel like you never left."
Severance Season 2 Production and Filming
In January 2024, Ben Stiller confirmed that Severance Season 2 is back in production.
Season 2 was meant to finish filming in late May before production was shut down due to the writers' strike.
As the season was meant to wrap production just weeks after it was forced to stop, there probably won't be much left to film once Severance gets back in front of the cameras now that the writers' and actors' strikes are over.
Alongside the confirmation, Apple TV+ released the first official image of Season 2, showing Adam Scott's Mark Scout running away or chasing someone:
When Is Severance Season Season 2 Releasing?
Deadline reported that production was shut down in New York in the wake of the writers' strike, with guild members picketing York Studios in New York during the second week of the strike.
Additionally, AV Club reported on a news release from Puck's Matthew Belloni that detailed behind-the-scenes drama between Severance's showrunners - another potential problem for bringing the series back.
Co-showrunners Dan Erickson and Mark Friedman have reportedly been at odds with one another, on top of reports that delays are in the picture due to extensive script rewrites and episode costs tallying close to $20 million
Belloni detailed how Season 2 has been "plagued for months by pricey problems," which was seen in "scrapped scripts" and the fact that the showrunners "don’t speak to each other."
The two were said to have "ended up hating each other" while filming Season 1, with Friedman seemingly wanting out of the picture on Season 2. Ben Stiller, who worked with Friedman on Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, reportedly enticed him to stay after Stiller couldn't find someone to replace the writer.
Reports have noted that Erickson and Friedman have worked together on it with no issues. They're also joined by House of Cards creator Beau Willimon, who was hired to assist on Season 2 and beyond.
When asked by a fan on Twitter when Season 2 will premiere on Apple TV+, Stiller simply said, "Working on it!"
Season 1 was initially scheduled to finish its filming schedule in June 2021 before debuting on the streaming service eight months later on February 18, 2022.
Given that filming has already resumed, it's possible that Season 2 could premiere in Spring 2024.
Who’s Cast In Severance Season 2?
Although filming on Season 2 has yet to resume since the Hollywood strikes, the cast for Severance is all confirmed and in place for the show's return to Apple TV+.
Madame Web star Adam Scott will be back at the forefront as Lumon Industries worker Mark Scout while Zach Cherry comes back alongside him as Dylan George, Mark's severed co-worker in the Macrodata Refinement division's "severance" program.
Jen Tullock returns as Mark's sister, Devon Hale, while Spider-Man: Homecoming star Michael Chernus plays Devon's husband and Mark's brother-in-law Ricken.
Britt Lower (Helly Riggs/Eagen) and John Turturro (Irving Bailiff) will be back as Mark's other co-workers on the severance floor under the supervision of Tramell Tillman's Seth Milchick.
Agents of SHIELD and Jurassic World veteran Dichen Lachman will be back as Ms. Casey/Gemma, the severed floor's wellness counselor.
Rounding out the veterans are Christopher Walken's Burt Goodman, the severed chief of the Optics and Design division, and Patricia Arquette's Harmony Cobel, Mark's boss who also goes undercover as his neighbor.
Variety also detailed a list of eight newcomers that will play undisclosed roles next season, which can be seen below:
- Gwendoline Christie
- Alia Shawkat
- Bob Babalan
- Merrit Wever
- Robby Benson
- Stefano Carannante
- John Noble
- Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
What Will Happen in Severance Season 2?
Based on Season 1's finale, there are plenty of wild directions the second season can take when it returns to the air.
The biggest of those developments came when Dylan, Mark, and Helly all reverted to their Outie forms at the end of the episode, making it a complete mystery if their Innies survived the change.
Additionally, Mark has some new complications due to the revelation of his wife, Gemma, being alive, while it's still unclear if Devon will be able to piece together Mark's attempt to tell her so that she can tell Mark's Outie what happened. This is on top of the potential drama that may arise with Mark's Innie and Outie knowing about Gemma's survival, all while Mark's Innie and Helly develop their own romance.
Dan Erickson spoke with Entertainment Weekly about Gemma's role in Season 2, noting that the team wanted to ensure they "could continue her story and his story in a compelling way" rather than making it simply an internet-breaking twist:
"Again, I don’t want to give away what the deal is with Gemma and how she came to be [at Lumon], but we wanted to make sure that we could continue her story and his story in a compelling way, and not just have this be a big “oh s---” twist that completely changes the context of everything. We wanted it to affect both of their arcs but not completely derail them."
He also discussed the next season with Variety, although he didn't want to reveal too much out of worry that director Ben Stiller would "leap out and kill [him]" for saying anything.
The real questions to watch for are who was targeted first between Mark and Gemma, which will only be touched on a little bit in this season before things really move forward in Season 3 and beyond:
"There’s a question of sort of who was targeted first: Was Mark targeted because of his relationship to Gemma, or was it the other way around? And that’s something that we don’t see this season, but we will see in subsequent seasons. That’s the big question, what is special about Mark? And is it actually that there’s something special about him or is it more about Gemma, and he was sort of pulled in? Those are all left unanswered this season, but we will get into it."
Helly was also revealed to be the Innie for Helena Eagen, daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagen, which adds a new level of family drama to the show with Helly exposing the Innies' treatment plan at Lumon.
Erickson also discussed the upcoming season with Esquire, teasing that there will be "a sense of what Lumon is trying to do" while fans learn about "the role that our main characters are going to play in that" and where everything comes together by the end.
Erickson also shared with Entertainment Weekly that viewers will see much more of a perspective from the Innies as Season 2 focuses on "showing all of these people on the outside."
In an interview with Deadline in April 2022, Ben Stiller promised fans that all of the unanswered questions at the end of Season 1 will be "answered at some point:"
"I think it's important for fans of the show to know that the unanswered questions do need to be answered at some point. It's just, that I think we feel this responsibility to do it in a way that is both responsible and entertaining."
Severance Season 2 has yet to confirm an official Apple TV+ release date, but all nine episodes of the first season are streaming now.
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