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'Been a minute'
The bad news is that we won't be seeing new episodes of Severance until early 2025. The good (?) news is that 2024 is almost over. The best news is that Apple TV+ has released the first extended look at Season 2, which gives us a few tantalizing looks at all that's to come, from a watermelon that looks like Irving (John Turturro) to three of the newest faces on the severed floor.
While you settle in to spend the next few months theorizing, be sure to keep reading to learn everything we currently know about Severance Season 2.
In July, Apple TV+ announced that Severance Season 2 will premiere on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. Episodes will be released weekly, with the finale airing on March 21, 2025.
The news came long after director and executive producer Ben Stiller told a fan in 2022 to prepare for a long hiatus, recommending that we all collectively choose patience after being asked by a fan on X (formerly Twitter) how long the wait would be. "Hope you can hang in!" he wrote.
Patricia Arquette gave similar advice in January 2023, telling Entertainment Tonight, "You'll get it when you get it. And you won't get upset."
After months without news, we finally have our first extended look at Severance Season 2. In a new teaser trailer released in October, Mark S. (Adam Scott) runs through Lumon's blindingly white hallways, intercut with brief glimpses at the new season. In one shot, we see a watermelon with Irving's (John Turturro) likeness carved into it; in another, missing person flyers for Ms. Casey/Gemma (Dichen Lachman) pile up on a printer tray. It ends with Mark being greeted by three strangers — played by new cast members Alia Shawkat, Bob Balaban, and Stefano Carannante — sitting at the Macrodata Refinement quad desk. "Who are you people?" Mark asks, before Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) enters with a bunch of balloons emblazoned with Mark's face. "Been a minute," Milchick says, in the understatement of the century.
In July, in tandem with the premiere date announcement, Apple TV+ unveiled the first Severance Season 2 teaser. Clocking in at exactly 40 seconds, it gives only a brief look at what the members of the severed floor are up to, and ends on a very menacing Gwendoline Christie saying, "You should've left."
And in June, Apple TV+ bundled our first look at Severance Season 2 in with a video teasing its upcoming programming. The brief clips show Mr. Milchick welcoming Mark back to Lumon.
The Apple TV+ press release announcing the premiere date also came with a short, vague description: "In Season 2, Mark (played by Scott) and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe."
The details are, predictably, being kept quiet. Creator Dan Erickson didn't reveal much at the Severance Comic-Con panel in 2022, saying only that Season 2 would focus on "building out the world a little bit more, and with this tweak to reality, what the ramifications would be." And when asked whether the show will explain what the deal is with the goats, Erickson simply replied, "Yeah." Great!
Apple TV+ has confirmed that all the severed and un-severed Lumon employees from Season 1, including Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Zach Cherry, and Dichen Lachman, will return for the second season. Sarah Bock will also join Season 2 as a series regular in an undisclosed role.
It was also revealed that eight new cast members will join the ensemble, appearing in undisclosed roles: Gwendoline Christie, Bob Balaban, Merritt Wever, Alia Shawkat, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, John Noble, Robby Benson, and Stefano Carannante.
Severance has not officially been renewed for a third season by Apple TV+ (normal, considering Season 2 hasn't even premiered yet), but series writer and Season 2 co-executive producer Mohamad El Masri told IndieWire that the series has "mapped out" the full arc for the rest of the show, however long it may run. "I know there was work being done on Season 3 while they were still shooting Season 2," El Masri said.
"There was always a thinking ahead to future seasons," he continued. "Even in Season 2, we were talking about, what is the end game and how does this show end? A lot of work was talking about that. I think there's a natural overlap that happens, especially with the second season of a show, that you've got to keep [the momentum] going. People are interested, people are watching, and now with Season 2, you really have to sort of think about, not just what is Season 2 going to deliver in a satisfying way, but how does this set up Season 3 and beyond?"
As for whether the wait for a potential third season would be just as long as the wait between Seasons 1 and 2, El Masri couldn't say for sure. "That's something I can't ultimately talk about," El Masri said. "I will say, will it take another 3.5 years for the show to come out with Season 3? I mean, I hope not, just as a fan. I hope we don't have to keep ourselves waiting for that long. But, you know, it's Hollywood." Hollywood indeed!
Severance Season 1 is now streaming on Apple TV+.