Ben Stiller and John Turturro Tease Season 2 of Apple TV+ Series SEVERANCE "We Are Delving Into the Unknown"

The long-awaited second season of Apple TV+’s sci-fi workplace drama Severance is finally headed our way this January, three years after the first season was released on the streamer.

The series was created by Dan Erickson, who co-writes the series, and the head director is Ben Stiller. This week, Stiller and co-star on the show John Turturro sat down with Variety to tease what fans can expect from a second season, and why waiting this long to release it has put extra pressure on the people who are making it.

Turturro, who plays company man Irving in the series, said:

“I think it’ll be a really interesting second season. We are delving into the unknown that the audience is waiting for, and then doing it incrementally.”

For director and executive producer Ben Stiller, a three-year gap between seasons has them hoping these new episodes live up to fans’ lofty expectations. He said of working on Season 2 of Severance:

“It’s an interesting experience. I’ve never been through it before — a second season of anything. Everything I’ve done has gotten canceled back in the day. But, you know, I feel like there’s an expectation that the audience has — that they should have if they love something. For us, it’s just been the process of trying to live up to our expectation of what we think the show should be and commit to that.”

In the show, Adam Scott stars in the series as Mark Scout, who works a desk job at a mysterious biotech company known as Lumon.

The controversial corporation performs procedures in which employees’ psyches are bifurcated to separate work memories from personal memories, creating Innies (employees’ at-work personas) and Outties (their selves outside of the office).

Patricia Arquette stars as the manager of the severed employees, as well as Mark’s next-door neighbor. As the show progresses, Mark makes curious discoveries that call into question the intentions of the company. The rest of the cast includes Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Jen Tullock, Dichen Lachman, Michael Chernus, John Turturro and Christopher Walken.

New members joining the cast this season include Alia Shawkat, Gwendoline Christie, Merritt Wever, Bob Balaban, Robby Benson, Stefano Carannate, John Noble and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson.

The Season 2 logline reads: “Mark (Scott) and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.”

Season 2 will consist of 10 episodes and it’s set to premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday, January 17. I can’t wait!