Director Ben Stiller has refuted recent reports of problems during the filming of the second season of “Severance Pay,” saying that everyone is working together to create a healthy work environment, and that things are going slowly but smoothly.
Following reports that two of Severance’s showrunners were having issues with each other on an Apple TV Plus show, leaving Stiller scrambling to find a replacement, Stiller offered his thoughts on what’s going on in response to another report that refuted that report the first one. Stiller said all was well, though the process was as slow as ever.
Stiller responded to the Severance fan page on Twitter, which shared information from a report that refuted the initial claims. “No one’s going to the lounge. We’ve been running the same very slow schedule. We’ve always had the same target air date. Love our fans and each other, and we’re all trying to make this show as good as possible,” Stein said. Le tweeted with a blue heart emoji. This was in response to the Twitter account Severance Updates, which aggregated reports refuting the previous one, with the headline “The Daily Beast Updates Their Coverage of Alleged #Severance BTS Drama”. Please calm down hysterically.
Many are looking forward to seeing where Severance Pay goes after its surprise breakout run in 2022. While the show moves slowly, the finale pays off handsomely, as seeing the little girls experience the outside world is not only cathartic and exposes Lumon Industries’ corruption, but the show hangs in the balance. Helly reveals that Lumon imprisons innies to the public (or does she?), Irving goes to Burt’s house to find his love Burt, and Mark reveals that his wife, who he thinks is dead, has been alive and working for Lumon .
Reassuringly, from the horse’s mouth, things are not as bad as the initial reports appear. Often, production issues cause certain shows to not be as good as they once were. Take The Walking Dead, for example. Once they fired original showrunner Frank Darabont after season 1, the show changed course, which resulted in the show not being nearly as cinematic after that. Who knows what the show would have done if they had kept him around? Hopefully Severance doesn’t have this problem during runtime.
Sadly, a severance package that’s as good as the first season may leave fans on edge, as Stiller says the process will be slow, meaning the jury will be out when the second season launches. At the same time, art should not be rushed. Barry took a three-year hiatus between seasons 2 and 3—though that was due to an untimely pandemic—but they managed to maintain the quality of the show anyway, making the wait worth it. Hopefully the severance doesn’t take that long, but if they do, fans should be optimistic that the story will only get better from there.
Severance Pay Season 1 is available to stream on Apple TV Plus.