It’s not often that overwhelming success leads to delays, but that was at least partially the case when it came to “Severance” Season 2. Delays caused by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes certainly contributed to the Apple TV+ award-winning drama’s almost three year gap between seasons. But one of the biggest reasons for the show’s 2025 return has to do with Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller’s quest for perfection.
There were times in developing Season 2 that Erickson and his team wrote a scene they thought would work. It was only when the series was at the filming stage that they realized what they were shooting wasn’t quite right, resulting in delays for one of the most anticipated and innovative shows on television.
“It’s just a feeling. Ben [Stiller] and I work together really closely on crafting the story, both at an outlining phase and then with the scripts. You just sort of know when you know,” Erickson, the creator, showrunner and executive producer of “Severance,” told TheWrap. “We were very adamant that we not move ahead at any point until we really felt like we had it.”
More than most, “Severance” is a show defined by vibes. Stiller admitted he wasn’t quite sure what “Severance” even was before Theodore Shapiro constructed Season 1’s score. The A-lister was originally struck by the “uniquely genuine” tone of the script, and noted that the stark, vast empty spaces of Lumen’s building and the “Severance” universe contributed to the “surreal” feeling of the show.
“We started to put those elements together, both when we were filming and editing. When the actors started to do the scenes, we started to feel what it was,” Stiller, who directs the series and serves as an EP, told TheWrap. “We’re always checking in with each other on what feels like the show or not.”
Both Erickson and Stiller admitted it took “a while” to write Season 2. Originally, the season started shooting in October 2022 before it faced strike-related shutdowns in May 2023. By then, seven of the 10 episodes in Season 2 had been completed. After the strikes resolved at the end of 2023, the production was finally able to finish its final three episodes, filming from January to May 2024. That last bit of filming took an extra long time since the delay the strikes caused forced the team to start pre-production again.
“That’s part of the reason, or most of the reason, that the season has taken so long to come out,” series star Adam Scott, who plays Mark S., told TheWrap. “We were lucky enough to get like weeks of ramp up to shooting whenever we start shooting.” Scott also noted that everyone involved in the series “deeply believed” in the strikes.
The production time required by “Severance” paired with the strike delays required the team to be “fluid,” Stiller said.
“That’s all part of our process, too. We’re lucky enough to be able to do that all while wanting to try to make it as good as possible, especially after the first season,” Stiller said. “When we realized we had an audience and people were paying such close attention who were fans of the show, that was inspiring. You’re just there going, like, ‘All right, I want to make this as good as we can make it.’”
“All of us have to calibrate ourselves to be running a marathon and not a sprint,” series star Britt Lower, who plays Helly R., told TheWrap. “In the case of this show, it’s a long form art piece that it takes a lot of time to craft.”
Now that “Severance” is on the other side of its arduous Season 2, Stiller noted that it feels good. Both Scott and Lower emphasized that they felt more confident going into this season rather than the intentionally nebulous Season 1.
“Having [the world and these characters’ backstories] already behind us was nice, to be able to dive into the current circumstances and not be figuring out the show as we went,” Scott said.
“It’s sort of like a workplace comedy that got left out in the sun too long and maybe got ran over by a truck a couple of times and mutated into something else,” Erickson joked. “A lot of the times, especially in Season 1, in the foreground it’s this workplace comedy about pencil erasers and group photos. And in the background, there’s this growing scary thing that is threatening to swallow these lovable characters whole. So it’s both things at once.”
“Severance” Season 2 premieres with the first two episodes Friday, Jan. 17 on Apple TV+.
