‘Severance’ creator knows how the show will end but “we don’t really know how we’re getting there”

Severance creator Dan Erickson has revealed that he knows how the series will end – but not how they’re going to get there.

• READ MORE: ‘Severance’ season two review: mind-bending workplace sci-fi is the smartest thing on TV

Erickson, who created the psychological sci-fi thriller, told IndieWire on the Emmys red carpet last night (September 14) that he’s currently working on the show’s third season, too.

The Apple TV+ series picked up eight awards from 27 nominations at Sunday’s Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, with Britt Lower (Helly R.) and Tramell Tillman (Seth Milchick) winning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series respectively. Merritt Weaver won Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series, too.

The show’s critically acclaimed second season premiered in January, almost three years after the first season began, the gap being due to both COVID-19 and the Hollywood actors’ strikes.

In terms of future seasons, Erickson explained: “We know the end, and we don’t really know how we’re getting there. We have some idea of how we’re getting there, but we definitely like to be open to playing jazz a little bit and changing things as we go along, falling in love with characters that we didn’t necessarily expect to fall in love with, and incorporating them into the story in new ways. I think it is possible to overplan, but we know where we’re going at the end of the day.”

Season two ended on a cliffhanger, and Erickson described the “stress dreams” and “sleepless nights” that went into it. “Somehow, it worked out. It’s always hard to replicate something that you’ve done,” he said. “What I ultimately realised was that I just have to stop trying to replicate it. Let’s try and make something that’s new and fresh, and let’s surprise people.”

When asked about which decision from the season worried him the most, he brought up the fourth episode, which took place on a frozen lake. “That was one where I was like, ‘Are we going to lose people? Are we going to jump the shark? Or jump the dead sea in our case?’” he admitted. “I found, in doing this season, that’s where the good stuff is.”

NME gave Severance’s second season a five-star review, describing it as “the smartest thing on TV.” The review read: “As things get all the more intriguing by the minute, Severance is a show best watched on high alert. For example, graffiti scrawled in the background reads “Who is alive?” By the time The Stone Roses’ ‘Love Spreads’ hits the soundtrack, with Ian Brown wailing “Let me put you in the picture / Let me show you what I mean”, you’ll be begging for the Severance team to do the same. Don’t stress it, though. Enjoy the ride and let this unique show tease and titillate your brain until you finally submit.”

In other season three news, Ben Stiller won’t be returning to direct the show. The actor directed the first two seasons and serves as co-executive producer, but shared last month that he’ll be focusing on a World War II survival movie that’s set to shoot in the spring. A fourth Meet The Parents movie, Focker In-Law, is currently in principal photography, too.

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