Severance Season 3 Gets An Official Update From Ben Stiller

Don’t try to reintegrate now — this article contains spoilers for “Severance” season 2, including episode 4!

If you’re fully locked into the sophomore season of “Severance” but nervous that you might have to wait another three interminable years for the next installment, I have some good news for you. In a recent profile in The Hollywood Reporter, the show’s executive producer Ben Stiller revealed that work is already underway on a third season.

The piece states that a writers room is currently assembled and that Stiller “hopes not to keep audiences waiting three years this time,” which is definitely welcome news for fans who need more of this trippy, layered mystery box show that’s become a phenomenon on Apple TV+. To be clear: Apple TV+ has yet to confirm a third season for the show, but in this writer’s opinion, it’s all but inevitable; “Severance” is an enormous hit for Apple, and based on the marketing campaign they launched for season 2 — which included a live installment in New York’s Grand Central Station that featured major stars like Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, and Britt Lower — the streamer is more than willing to keep investing in Stiller and creator Dan Erickson’s vision.

It should be said that, just after the reveal that Stiller has already assembled a writers room for a potential season 3, Stiller said that Apple TV+ has given the show’s creative team plenty of financial freedom despite hard times in the entertainment industry. “Everything changed a lot after the strike, for everyone, in terms of the way people are looking at budgets and spending,” Stiller said. “To Apple’s credit, they stayed on track with what the show was, and they’ve supported it.” The head of programming at the streamer, Matt Cherniss, also called “Severance” an “incredible success story in every way imaginable,” so all signs do point to a season 3 renewal … and thankfully, the writers are already hard at work.

In the same profile with THR, Ben Stiller addresses the fact that he’s now one of the major creative forces behind what I already called a “mystery box show,” a term that’s probably familiar to fans of beloved shows like “Lost” or even Netflix’s soon-to-be finished hit “Stranger Things.” Stiller, apparently, was not familiar with the verbage. “I’d never heard the term mystery box show until two years ago,” Stiller said. “They’re like, ‘So you’re making a mystery.’ I’m like, ‘Oh s***, I’m not prepared for this.’ But what I got out of that was that people don’t want to be led down a path or be messed with. With a show like this, there’s always that question, ‘Do they know where they’re going?'”

Apparently, the show does know where it’s going — the THR article mentions that creator Dan Erickson, alongside Stiller and the show’s writers, do have a roadmap for the rest of the series’ narrative — which is a relief, because if you thought season 1 of “Severance” had wild twists and turns, it’s nothing compared to season 2. Within the first four episodes alone, the show has returned to the bizarre “goat room” first seen last season (though we still don’t totally know what’s going on there except that “Game of Thrones” veteran Gwendoline Christie appears to be the one in charge), Adam Scott’s Mark S. has undergone a potentially life-threatening procedure to sort of merge his severed “innie” and real world “outie” known as reintegration, and a major revelation has come to light concerning Britt Lower’s dual characters Helena Eagan and Helly R.

If fans of “Severance” aren’t excited to hear that a new season is already in the works, I don’t really know what to say to them — because so far, all season 2 has done is keep building and building to a presumably incredible point. In the bombshell fourth episode of the season, titled “Woe’s Hollow,” Mark S., Irving B. (John Turturro), Dylan G. (Zach Cherry), and “Helly R.” all wake up in their severed “innie” selves in a frozen tundra, only to discover that their bizarre boss Seth Milchick (Trammell Tillman) has arranged for a sort of insane field trip for the innies that centers around Kier Eagan, the apparent religious icon and original founder of Lumon (the company they all work for).

Throughout the hour, Ben Stiller — who directed the episode — masterfully builds the tension to an excruciating level until the installment’s climax, when Irving B. finally forces the woman masquerading as Helly R. to reveal that she’s not a real innie, but Kier’s heir Helena Eagan masquerading as her own innocent innie. Frankly, the best part about season 2 of “Severance” — which was worth the long wait! — is that the show seems wholly unafraid to hit major milestones within the first few episodes of the season itself, which bodes well for future seasons. Based on the fact that Stiller, Dan Erickson, and the rest of the team have a roadmap for the show and the fact that they’re already working on more episodes, “Severance” will hit new, wild heights as it continues … so now we just have to wait for any renewal news and keep watching season 2, which airs new episodes at 9 P.M. EST on Apple TV+ on Thursday nights.