Apple TV’s Weirdest Sci-Fi Show is Finally Getting a Second Season
It’s time to clock back in.
Severance, Apple TV+’s cerebral hit sci-fi series, shocked fans in 2022 with its twisty storytelling and lofty premise following corporate employees who undergo a “severance” process to keep their work and life memories completely separate. But while Severance was renewed for a second season only a few days before the Season 1 finale, production on Season 2 has moved at a snail’s pace.
Now, the show is finally on its way back to our screens, despite strikes and rumors of behind-the-scenes drama. Here’s everything you need to know, and when you can expect to clock into Lumon Industries again.
Severance Season 2 began filming on October 3, 2022, and was supposed to wrap in May 2023. However, the writers’ strike paused production in May, and then the actors’ strike completely halted production until the end of the year. Finally, more than a year after the season began filming, a behind-the-scenes picture tweeted by Apple confirmed the series is officially back in production.
Strikes aren’t the only obstacles Severance has had to contend with. In April 2023, rumors were swirling that showrunners Dan Erickson and Mark Friedman were in disagreement, with PuckNews even claiming the two “hated each other.” All these rumors prompted producer Ben Stiller to comment on Twitter, saying, “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.”
But just how slow is that “really slow” schedule, and when can we expect to see the Innies on screen again? Not much can be gleaned from the image posted, but now that filming has resumed, we can use Season 1 as precedent.
Season 2 will (eventually) follow Lumon’s workers as they learn more about their outside lives.
Season 1 had its own long filming schedule, beginning production on November 8, 2020, and wrapping in June 2021. If Season 2, which is four or five months into production, follows that same nine-month schedule, then it’s about halfway home. If so, there should only be around four months of filming left.
However, when Season 1 wrapped filming it was still eight months away from premiering, so there’s probably still quite some time before Season 2 hits your screen. Still, this is the first update we’ve had on Severence in months, and it’s a welcome sign that we may just have a chance of seeing Season 2 before the end of 2024. Considering the cliffhanger Season 1 ended on, sooner would be better.
