With the announcement of Severance Season 2's release date, the hit Apple TV+ series will break a frustrating record for the streamer.
The Adam Scott-led drama originally debuted back in February 2022 to rave reviews. It earned a glowing 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and still sits as the highest-rated original series on the streamer more than two years later.
Its much-anticipated second season has been a long time coming. It was renewed in April 2022, and fans are waiting to know what is next for Adam Scott's Mark Scout and the mysterious Lumon Industries.
Severance Season 2 Breaks Big Record
When Severance Season 2 comes to Apple TV+ in January 2025, the series will shatter the record for a scripted live-action original on the streamer.
The hit series will be released on January 17, 2025, 1,064 days after the end of Season 1.
It passes the previous record-holder of Little America Seasons 1 and 2, which had a similarly lengthy gap of 1,057 days.
Typically, Apple TV+'s biggest series have taken between 350 and 600 days between seasons, which makes the wait for Severance Season 2 all the more shocking.
Much of this lengthy delay has to do with the Hollywood actors' and writers' strikes that dominated headlines for much of 2023, as well as some drama behind the scenes of the production
Filming on the project started in October 2022 and finished in April 2024. However, the show hit a few bumps along the way.
In April 2023, it was reported that the co-showrunners of the series, Dan Erickson and Mark Friedman, had a falling out during their time on Season 1, resulting in the pair no longer speaking to each other while working on the show.
Friedman reportedly wanted out ahead of Season 2 but was coerced by his close collaborator and director on the show, Ben Stiller, to come back
As reported by Puck's Matthew Belloni (via AV Club), this, combined with "scrapped scripts" and rising episode costs, resulted in extensive delays.
House of Cards creator Beau Willimon was eventually brought on to help get the show to the finish line; however, production would then be halted as the guilds went to the picket lines.
Production eventually got underway again in January 2024 (per Ben Stiller) before finishing up a few months later in April.
What's Ahead for Severance Season 2
After more than 1,000 days since Season 1 ended, fans are itching to know what will happen in the next chapter of the Severance story.
Season 1 saw the series central trio of Mark, Dylan, and Helly (played by Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, and Britt Lower) break free of the grip of the dastardly Lumon Corporation.
This came to bear as they 'hopefully' reintegrated the part of their brain that would be left at work every day with that that existed outside the confines of their vocational confines.
This seemingly ended the titular severance at the heart of the series but left the actual fate of their Innie work selves in question.
Another major question mark is whether everything gets wrapped up nicely in Season 2. Season 1 ended satisfyingly enough that audiences would have likely been okay with it.
However, moving forward, the series' creative team seems to be working under the assumption that Season 2 is not the end.
According to director Ben Stiller, he believes major plot points like the fate of Dichen Lachman's Gemma will unfold in "subsequent seasons," meaning a Season 3 (and potentially 4) is likely (via Variety):
"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."
As for how that specifically plays out, fans must wait until the Season 2 trailer releases.
Severance is streaming on Apple TV+.
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