‘Severance’ Cast And Creator Tease Terrifying Season 2 Consequences: “At Lumon There Is No Victory Without Pain”

Much like the Lumon Industries egg bar, Severance Season 2 is coveted AF — especially since fans of Apple TV+‘s acclaimed workplace thriller have waited nearly three years for answers.

When we last left Lumon’s severed employees, Dylan (Zach Cherry) had trigged the Overtime Contingency, allowing Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), and Irving’s (John Turturro) innies to inhabit the bodies of their outies in a risky whistleblowing attempt. On January 17, 2025, Season 2 of the series — created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller — will pick up after Season 1’s massive cliffhangers and explore the consequences of MDR’s bold finale actions.

While we wait to learn what fresh hell awaits Mark and his pals on the severed floor, Severance‘s creator and cast chatted with Decider to tease what the 10-episode sophomore season has in store. Praise Kier!

“We had a victory at the end of Season 1 for the innies, but at Lumon, there is no victory without pain,” Erickson explained to Decider over Zoom. “So get ready for some pain.”

Ahead of the holidays, Apple TV+ released the first eight minutes of Severance Season 2, which showed Mark’s highly-anticipated return to Lumon. After stepping off the elevator back onto the severed floor, he races to Wellness only to find Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) gone. Meanwhile, in MDR’s office, a new team (Stefano Carannante, Bob Balaban, and Alia Shawkat) awaits, and Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) quickly appears to whisk him away to the management office, where new hire Miss Huang (Sarah Bock) — who Mark calls “a child” — is posted at Milchick’s Season 1 desk.

Where does Milchick sit now? At Cobel’s (Patricia Arquette) desk, as she’s no longer with the company. Milchick manages the severed floor now and claims that a whopping five months passed since the OTC ordeal. In that time, he says the MDR team gained “international fame” and became the face of “severance reform.” As for the employment status of Helly, Irving, and Dylan, Milchick says he “tried for weeks to get them back” but “none of them agreed.” Judging from Tillman and Arquette’s Season 2 tease, however, everything presented in Severance Season 2 is not as it seems.

“Whenever anyone asks me about Cobel, I just want to lie to you. A little inner Cobel comes out and I just want to deceive you and throw you down a dirt road of confusion about where you’re going,” Arquette told Decider.

“Season 2: Dirt road of confusion,” Tillman said with a chuckle. “I like that. I’ll stick with that.”

Along Season 2’s “dirt road of confusion,” fans will meet more fresh faces, including new series regular, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, who plays Mr. Drummond, a mysterious figure associated with Lumon. The Season 2 trailer kicks off with a voiceover from Drummond, explaining, “Their work will be remembered as one of the greatest moments of this planet.” Though much about the character has yet to be revealed, Drummond’s comment suggests he could potentially be a member of the company’s mysterious Board, who Mark reaches out to in Season 2.

Subsequent trailer clips show Milchick visiting Mark’s outie at home and attempting to convince him to return to work, claiming, “The Mark I’ve come to know is happy.” In direct opposition of those claims, we see Mark’s innie sprinting down Lumon’s white halls and desperately commandeering the speaker in Cobel’s old office in hopes of complaining straight to The Board.

When asked for a Season 2 tease, Severance star Zach Cherry told Decider, “If I had to describe Season 2 in one word, I would use the word ‘severance.'” The response may sound like a joke designed to avoid spoilers, but fans of the Apple TV+ series know that most everything related to the show has a deeper meaning. With Reghabi’s (Karen Aldridge) return in the trailer, reintegration — the process of combining innie and outie memories — appears to be on the table in Season 2, which means the severance procedure will likely be put to the test. Furthermore, after Mark’s outie confronts Cobel in her car and asks about Gemma in Season 2’s trailer, Cobel replies, “Mark, there will be no honeymoon ending for you,” suggesting trouble is ahead for Mark’s innie, his outie, and Gemma/Ms. Casey.

As the sophomore season seeks to uncover more about these characters’ lives both in and outside of Lumon, Lower told Decider the new batch of episodes will “really explore the connection with between the characters as a team, but also the connections they start having outside of the chosen work family.”

The Season 2 trailer gives us a peek at Irving’s outie in a phone booth, Burt’s outie sitting in front of a fire, and Helly’s outie meeting Cobel at Lumon following the disastrous gala, so it seems life outside Lumon will play a more substantial role in the coming chapter. We also see the MDR team scaling a snowy cliff outdoors and offer Mark running through the Lumon parking lot, which suggests the series is about to go places it never has before.

While the gap between seasons has been agonizing for fans, Severance‘s team appreciates the patience and feels confident that Season 2 will be worth the wait.

“It’s been so fun watching the show grow over the past few years as far as people discovering it goes. We’re just so grateful that everyone’s been so patient,” Scott told Decider, echoing Ben Stiller’s previous comments that the delay was in part due to a particular pursuit of quality within the show.

“Something that’s been so gratifying is that the fans really go deeply into this show. They really study the details. So I’m just so glad that the show is made with such care, and we pay attention to every single detail,” Scott continued. “Everything is scrutinized. So we hope that the fans know the detail with which they care about the show — we take that attention to detail when making the show.”

Severance Season 2 premieres Friday, January 17 on Apple TV+.