Ben Stiller Responds to Reports of ‘Severance’ Season 2 Turmoil
After a report claimed that behind-the-scenes issues were delaying Season 2 of Severance, executive producer Ben Stiller cleared the air on Twitter, saying the Apple TV+ series’ sophomore outing is on schedule with the “same target air date we’ve always had.”
Stiller’s tweet on Friday, April 28, came after Puck News’ Matthew Belloni reported (per The Daily Beast) that Season 2 was behind schedule because of script issues, increased production costs, and tension between co-showrunners Dan Erickson and Mark Friedman.
Belloni claimed Erickson, the creator of Severance and a first-time TV producer, and Friedman, a veteran TV writer, and producer, “ended up hating each other on the first season” and that Friedman even quit the show before Stiller roped him back in for Season 2.
Also involved in the production, according to the report, is House of Cards creator Beau Willimon, who’s helping plot the trajectory of Severance’s second and third season.
Citing a source close to the show, The Daily Beast reported on Friday that Season 2 is on schedule and that Erickson, Friedman, and Willimon “are working together without issue.”
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And when a Severance fan account tweeted The Daily Beast’s reporting, Stiller chimed in. He didn’t dispute the reports of tension between Erickson and Friedman, per se, but he did deny that the Season 2 production was behind schedule.
“No one’s going to the break room,” he tweeted, referencing the in-show punishment for Lumon Industries’ Macrodata Refinement employees. “We’re on the same really slow schedule we’ve always been on. Same target air date we’ve always had. Love our fans and each other, and we all are just working to make the show as good as possible.”
Severance, which racked up 14 Emmy Award nominations and two wins for its first season, stars Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, John Turturro, and Christopher Walken as Lumon Industries drones whose work lives are severed from their personal lives, with Patricia Arquette and Tramell Tillman playing their supervisors.
For Season 2, Gwendoline Christie, John Noble, Alia Shawkat, Merritt Wever, Bob Balaban, Robby Benson, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, and Stefano Carannante have joined the cast.
“We are thrilled and delighted to be back on set for the exciting second chapter of Severance,” Stiller said in a statement last fall when Season 2 began filming. “Though we don’t know how long we’ve been gone or who we are outside, we are told people enjoy the show, and we couldn’t be happier. Praise Kier!”
Severance, Season 2, TBA, Apple TV
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