Severance Season 2: Everything We Know So Far

Fans of Severance, the Apple TV+ sci-fi series that delivered such an acclaimed first season in early 2022, have been waiting a long time for the show to make good on its cliffhanger ending. "SHE'S ALIVE!" yelled Mark (Adam Scott), moments before his consciousness flipped from Innie back to Outie. That's the last we saw of Severance for over a year, and questions about when the show will come back and why it's taking so long abound. We've gathered all the information that's out there regarding where Severance is at, how soon we'll get more of it, and what's in the works for Season 2.

Where Did Severance Leave Off at the End of Season 1?

In a thrilling season finale, the Innies figured out a way to awaken themselves in their Outie life. Mark (Adam Scott) told his sister Devon (Jen Tullock) the truth and learned the reasons why his Outie chose Severance. He also revealed Ms. Cobel's (Patricia Arquette) double life to Devon, though he was snapped back out of consciousness just as he was going to tell her the big reveal, that his presumed dead wife, Gemma (Dichen Lachman), is still alive and working at Lumon as Ms. Casey.

Dylan (Zach Cherry) had already learned that his outie has a daughter. As he was trying to stop Dylan from carrying out the overtime contingency, Milchik told him that he has two other children. Meanwhile, Irving (John Turturro) woke up in his home to discover that he's a military veteran, a metalhead, an artist, and — if the piles and piles of research into the people in the Severance program are any indication — a possible mole inside the Lumon corporation.

Helly (Britt Lower) learned that she is really Helena Eagan, granddaughter of Lumon founder Keir Eagan and daughter of the current CEO. She underwent Severance to try to drum up public support for the procedure. When Helena "woke up" amid a Lumon gala, she was able to speak out about the hell of Innie life in the moments before she was blipped back out of consciousness.

When Does Severance Season 2 Premiere?

While various reports and rumors mentioned an early 2024 release, production on Season 2 shut down in May, shortly after the WGA strike began. We probably won’t know any more about a possible premiere date until at least after the strikes have been resolved.

Why Was Severance Still in Production in May?

A fair question, considering it had already been over a year since the first season had ended. The extra-long production time on Season 2 is likely related to reports of behind-the-scenes strife at the show. Industry insider Matthew Belloni published an article back in April reporting that showrunners Dan Erickson and Mark Friedman had not gotten along during the production of Season 1, to the point of not communicating to one another. After executive producer Ben Stiller tried and failed to hire someone to replace Friedman between seasons, Stiller brought Friedman back, and the situation did not improve, with reports of scripts that had to be scrapped and budgets ballooning to $20 million per episode. Stiller reportedly brought in House of Cards' Beau Willimon to help finish the second season's scripts and to help set things up for Season 3.

Will There Be New Cast Members in Season 2?

Yes! It's been announced that Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), Merritt Wever (Tiny Beautiful Things), Bob Balaban (The Chair), Robby Benson (the voice of the Beast in Disney's original Beauty and the Beast), and John Noble (Fringe) will be joining the cast in Season 2.

Are There Any Severance Season 2 Plot Spoilers?

Nothing too concrete, but the show's creators have given some indications about where things are going. "There's definitely going to be some expansion of the world," Erickson told Esquire at the end of Season 1. "Within Lumon, we're going to see more of the building, and we’ll see more of the outside world, too." He also told Entertainment Weekly that the show would expand to showing more of the other characters' life outside of Lumon. "In season 2, we're going to be showing all of these people on the outside," he said. "Similar to Mark, they each had their own reason for getting this procedure, and they're all at some stage of a healing process for one thing or another."

Erickson also did a Reddit AMA, where he assured fans that the answer to the mystery was not going to be that everything inside Lumon is some sort of simulation. "The office is real," he said. "It exists physically and everything we see there is actually happening (except the black goo, which is Irv's dream)."

Severance Season 1 is available to stream on Apple TV+. Join the discussion about the show in our forums.

Joe Reid is the senior writer at Primetimer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His work has appeared in Decider, NPR, HuffPost, The Atlantic, Slate, Polygon, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The A.V. Club and more.