Stiller, Erickson discuss the future of Severance and how a New York publicity stunt is canon to the story

January 18th, 2025 by Marc Comments

So, how are we all feeling now that Severance is back for season 2 – after three long years! – and things are getting back to (ab)normal at Lumon? Pretty good? Yeah, me too.

That said, given the nature of the series, my head is spinning after that episode and is REDACTED really a villain now, no longer an innie?!! Agghhhhhh!

Anyway, while we all try to come to terms with what has happened and how we’re going to make it to next Friday, I have some new details about the series and its future.

WATCH: Full trailer arrives for Severance season 2!

Executive producer Ben Stiller has confirmed that, while we’re just starting season 2, he’s already working on season 3 and beyond: “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.

“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.”

Following on from Stiller’s comments, creator and showrunner Dan Erickson said that they have an ending in mind and are working towards that, although it’s not always a straight road and sometimes even they don’t see the corners coming: “I have a pretty solid idea of the endpoint of the show. I have kind of a final scene that has always been in my head and answers to some of the big questions. I think you sort of have to know those in order to know the rules of the world that you’re writing.

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“But also, I think it’s balanced because I like to be surprised by the show too,” he goes on, “Sometimes we’ll meet a new character or find a new location or element of the show that I am surprised to find myself in love with and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Well, now that has to be part of it. We can’t just leave that there. We have to make that a part of the bigger story.’ And that’s where a lot of the fun comes in. You have to think on your feet a little bit and let the show surprise you.”

He also teases that the show likely has a set number of seasons but what that number is, is a secret between him and Apple: “It’s not like a 100% for sure but we’ve talked about it internally and we’re all pretty sure that we have a number that we’re happy with.”

One of the most torturous aspects of Severance so far has been the prolonged gap (three years!) between seasons one and two but Erickson assure us that because they had to deal with covid and a writers’ strike, season 3 will not be so far off.

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Now, a little out of leftfield, which is entirely apt, Erickson talks about the viral Severance marketing stunt at Grand Central in New York which saw a glass cube set up with of heroes’ desks and computers set up not to mention the show’s stars appearing at their workstations and, stunt or not, it may be canon to the show!

Ben Stiller and Adam Scott were both really adamant that we get the real cast in there,” Erickson says stating that originally they had planned on just having other actors in the booth, “Then we had conversations behind the scenes: Where exactly in the continuity of the show does this take place? Is it canon? Do the events that take place in the cube take place in the show? If so, where do they fit?

Wait, a glass cube in Grand Central might be part of the official Severance story? Yup: “We decided that it’s all canon,” he says.

“But the thing is: People couldn’t hear what the actors were saying. I don’t even know what the actors were saying. But Britt Lower and I came up with an idea, but I’m going to keep that one close to the vest. And, by the way, the different groups of actors [in the booth too when the main cast were gone]— there’s a question as to whether that’s canon, too. And if so, where and when the hell is that taking place?

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Talking about the hundreds of passersby who stopped to film them – which you can see in the video below – Erickson has a unique take on that and how it fits into the storyline: “It was sort of meta to see them in the cube with a bunch of people outside filming them, treating them like zoo animals.”

Diving further into the meta idea, he goes on: “There’s a meta element with regard to surveillance, and there’s a meta element about it being a TV show. The show literally does have invisible people watching the characters, who the characters aren’t aware of. We are voyeuristically lurking in on these people. I love the photos where you can see through the cube. You see the characters, and then you see this crowd of people gawking at them. It’s really chilling, and it reminds me of the weirdness of being a viewer on a show like this.”

Man, this is all a bit trippy but as Severance’s dark comedy is also laced with overt sci-fi ideas, anything is literally possible – are they clones? Are they dead? Is Lumon run by aliens? If written right, any of these could work, so having the cast in a cube in the middle of New York is actually probably not that crazy an idea at all.

Thoughts? I know you have them and I want to hear them all…

Severance stars Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Jen Tullock, Dichen Lachman, Michael Chernus, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, and Patricia Arquette co-star in the series which is airing in Apple TV.

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Source: i09, Variety & Collider

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….