Ben Stiller says they briefly flirted with ending Severance Season 2 on a major cliffhanger, but they quickly realize they couldn’t do that again.
The final episode of Severance Season 2 is now available to stream on Apple TV+. It was announced earlier today that the show has been officially renewed for a third season, though a premiere date has not yet been set.
What did Ben Stiller say about the Severance Season 2 ending?
Speaking with Variety, Stiller said there was a “brief moment where we thought, maybe we do another cliffhanger where Mark is between Helly and Gemma.”
Not long after entertaining that idea, however, Stiller and the rest of the creative time realized they couldn’t do that to fans again after Severance Season 1 ended with a major cliffhanger.
“People will kill us,” he commented. “So, we wanted him to make the choice and set up a dystopian conflict.”
The gap between Severance Season 1 and Season 2 was a long one, as the first season premiered in February 2022 and then the second season didn’t come until January 2025, meaning fans of the show had to wait nearly three years to find out what would happen next.
While Severance Season 2 does see Mark S. decide to stay inside the Lummon halls with Helly instead of following Gemma to the outside world, fans likely won’t have to wait as long to see how Severance Season 3 explores the “dystopian conflict” as creator Dan Erickson says “there are” steps being taken to make sure it won’t be a three year wait.
“We’re hoping that there are no massive strikes or pandemics or fissures opening up in the crest of the Earth that end up delaying us,” Erickson said. “Barring that, I’d certainly hope that we’d get this one out a bit sooner. But, Severance has always been a show that takes a long time to make, and we’re proud of what we came up with, even though it took quite a long time.”
