Mark Scout’s heading back to work! Yes, two years and a couple of SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike-related delays since we last saw him on our screens, Adam Scott’s everyman office worker is getting ready to return to Lumon Industries in Severance Season 2. And, during a project-packed Apple TV Plus presentation at their WWDC event, the streaming giant shared a tantalising first look — finally! — at what awaits in the second season of Dan Erickson’s off-kilter workplace thriller. Check it out below:
Set in a world where ‘work-life balance’ consists of a surgical procedure that severs employees’ memories of their work and private lives, their ‘innies’ and ‘outies’, the first season of Severance climaxed (SPOILER WARNING!) with Mark (Scott) and his Macro-Data Refinement division colleagues — Dylan (Zach Cherry), Helly (Britt Lower), and Irving (John Turturro) — regaining control of their outside selves. In these first glimpses at Season 2 however, it’s clear Mark’s business with Lumon is far from over. “Welcome back, it’s been a minute,” grins Tramell Tillman’s severed floor supervisor Mr. Milchick, passing Mark what looks like a set of balloons with his own face on them at the start of the teaser reel. Later, we also see Mark waking up on Lumon’s conference room table, suggesting we may get more of his backstory this time around. And, to quicken the pulse a little, we even get some shots of Mark running through the brutalist white corridors of his ethically dubious biotech giant employer’s HQ. Ominous!
Only time will tell what this all means for Mark and his coworkers, but we do at least know who’ll be clocking in with them for Season 2. Ben Stiller is set to return on directing and executive producorial duties, with the likes of Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), and Bob Balaban (The French Dispatch) entering the fray alongside series regulars Patricia Arquette and Christopher Walken. We’ll bring you more news on Severance Season 2 and its release date as soon as we can, but until then we’re keeping the ‘Out Of Office’ on... just to be sure we don’t miss it, obviously!