Sydney Bucksbaum is a writer at Entertainment Weekly covering all things pop culture - but TV is her one true love. She currently lives in Los Angeles but grew up in Chicago so please don't make fun of her accent when it slips out.
Prepare your best business casual attire, because a return-to-office date has finally been scheduled for Severance.
On Wednesday, Apple TV+ officially announced that Adam Scott's mysterious office-set thriller will return in January 2025. The season 2 premiere will air Friday, Jan. 17, with nine more episodes debuting every Friday after that through March 21.
Plus, an ominous new teaser trailer was unveiled that reveals Game of Thrones alum Gwendoline Christie's mysterious new character delivering a warning to Mark (Scott) and Helly (Britt Lower): "You should have left," she tells them. The footage also reveals snapshots of Mark, Helly, and other Lumon Industries innies giving consent for the severance procedure, unaware of the chaos and dark path it will send each of them down.
Watch the new teaser below:
Severance follows Mark as he leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a procedure that surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. But the experiment, intended to create a healthy work-life balance, is called into question as Mark and his coworkers unravel the mystery of the true nature of their work, and their outtie lives.
By the end of the season 1 finale (spoilers!), Mark realized his late wife Gemma is actually alive and has worked with him this whole time as the severed Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman). However, his innie/outie lives have once again been separated, so there's no telling if he'll even remember this discovery when season 2 begins. According to the official synopsis, season 2 will find Mark and his friends learning "the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe."
Along with Scott, Lower, and Lachman, season 2 brings back returning cast members Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Tramell Tillman, Zach Cherry, Jen Tullock, Michael Chernus, and Christopher Walken. Along with Christie, new faces joining the cast are Sarah Bock (Bruiser), Alia Shawkat (Search Party), John Noble (Fringe), Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie), Bob Balaban (The Chair), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (The Tourist), Robby Benson (Beauty and the Beast), and Stefano Carannante (Mirabilia).
The first season of Severance earned 14 Emmy nominations, including Best Drama, and it ultimately won two: Outstanding Music Composition for a Series and Outstanding Main Title Design.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Severance was created and written by Dan Erickson with executive producer and director Ben Stiller, and while they've been vague on season 2 details, Stiller previously promised Entertainment Weekly that answers to all the show's mysteries are coming. "There are these very obvious questions that were posed at the end of season 1 that we understand people are wondering about and feel a responsibility in some way to make season 2 a satisfying experience for them in regards to that and in the world of the show," Stiller said.
And if you think you've guessed where Severance is going, Erickson revealed he hasn't seen a single fan correctly solve the mystery yet. "Not completely, no," he said. "There was someone who had a really interesting theory about Ricken and the three beds and how that tied into the greater mystery and I'm like, 'That's fascinating, but no comment.'"
%3Amax_bytes(150000)%3Astrip_icc()%3Afocal(994x351%3A996x353)%2FSeverance-Trailer-061024-16ed5204a14d4465b30d6b75a27e8298.jpg&w=3840&q=75)