When will ‘Severance' return for Season 3? Here's everything we know.

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a day ago

There was a nearly three-year gap between the first and second seasons of the Apple TV+ show.
Is it time to clock back in for our shift at Lumon Industries? Not quite, but with Season 3 of Severance heading our way, it is time to school up on everything we can expect from the latest installment of the weirdest workplace drama on TV.
The jaw-dropping — and heart-shattering — Season 2 finale of Severance in March 2025 reset the show's chessboard and finally gave the exploited workers of Lumon an upper hand against the evil Egan empire. Mark (Adam Scott) worked with his 'outtie' to rescue his wife, Gemma (Dichen Lachman), who had been severed into multiple personalities over the course of her very mysterious time at Lumon. But while 'innie' Mark had the chance to get back to the outside world, giving his 'outtie' the full control of his body forever, he couldn't do it: 'Innie' Mark wasn't willing to leave behind a life with girlfriend Helly (Brit Lower) and essentially disappear from existence. Turns out the severance procedure really works!
Severance — which scooped up a whopping 27 Emmy nominations this year — has left fans eager to know where the show will go next. While the Apple TV+ series is careful to play things close to the chest, we have gotten some small hints as to what fans should be on the lookout for next season.
As always: Please try to enjoy each fact equally.
When will return for Season 3?
The short answer is that we don't know when Severance is set to return for a third season — and there was a really, really long wait between Season 1 and Season 2. While the first season of Severance premiered in February 2022, the second one dropped nearly three years later in January 2025.
Hopefully we won't have to wait as long for the next one. While the show's creative team told The Wrap that there were some reshoots to get Severance scenes up to snuff (Puck previously reported tension on the set, which executive producer and multiple-episode director Ben Stiller denied), production was also delayed due to the writer and actor strikes of 2023, which set back the pace.
is keeping us fed with content in the meantime
Though we don't know when Severance will return, we are still getting some new content from the team. The Hollywood Reporter and Apple TV+ just released Lower's audition tape for Helly on Instagram, which showed her performing the very first scene she appeared in on the show: Helly waking up with no memory and discovering she's been severed.
And that's not all: In a CBS Sunday Morning episode on Aug. 17, Scott also gave fans a tour of the Bell Works building in New Jersey, one of the locations that 'plays' Lumon Industries on the series.
The Bell Works website explains why that location was chosen for the show, saying, 'The Bell Labs Holmdel Complex, originally designed by Eero Saarinen, has a distinct dystopian vibe that perfectly aligns with series creator Dan Erickson's vision. The building's modernist architecture, long hallways, and vast working spaces set the tone for the severed floor.'
Meanwhile, a billboard in classic Severance style also popped up on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, which Scott and Lower snapped a photo in front of and posted on Instagram on Aug. 17.
Severance fans are also able to grab a limited-time Lumon 'Morale Booster' smoothie at Erewhon, a popular boutique grocery store with multiple locations across the L.A. area. The smoothie is free and part of the show's For Your Consideration Emmys campaign; however, fans must give a passphrase at the counter in order to take one home. That phrase? Obviously, it's 'The work is mysterious and important.'
That really was Helly in the finale
It's understandable that Severance fans have trust issues surrounding Lower's character, Helly, given that her alter-ego, Helen Egan, stepped into her life during the second season, seduced Mark and sent Helly into an existential spiral. The good news? Creator Dan Erickson confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter in August that, yes, that really was Helly who Mark ran back to in the finale.
Erickson and Stiller initially shot down the fan theory that Helen was masquerading again as Helly in a March Los Angeles Times article, but just in case you need reassurance: Mark and Helly are truly together in the finale, and totally themselves.
Ben Stiller won't be back to direct
Though Stiller will return to Severance as an executive producer, he won't direct any episodes of the show's third season, due to time commitments for a new World War II project he's working on.
'It's been full-time the last 8 months working on season 3 and I'm not going anywhere. We have incredible directors and a team that creates the show,' Stiller wrote in an Aug. 18 post on X. 'I love directing it and look forward to at some point again for sure. I feel like season 3 is going to be the best yet as we continue to evolve.'
Stiller previously directed both the premiere and finales of Season 1 and Season 2, as well as seven additional episodes across both seasons.
could have a happy ending
We don't know when Severance will end. While Erickson told THR that the team has discussed a number of seasons they hope to do, they've yet to confirm how many there will be. However, whenever Severance does end, Erickson told the Los Angeles Times in March that he believes there's a way to make the innies and outies content, even though it's 'complicated' because life is a 'zero-sum' game.
'Reintegration has been raised as a possibility. But there's also the question of to what degree does that decimate the identity of each? Who would this new person be, and how much would they resemble the innie or the outie?' Erickson said. 'I'm an optimist. I do think that there's room for a happy ending, but it sure is complicated.'
Oh, and Stiller shut down a fan theory that the characters are actually just in hell when they descend the elevator to their workplace at Lumon, calling it the 'most obvious' (but ultimately, wrong) answer on an August episode of the podcast WTF With Marc Maron.
could get a spin-off
In an interview with Variety in May, Stiller teased that there are plans in the works to further explore the world of Severance. 'There are two specific ideas — that I won't tell you — that we've talked about internally as possible spin-off ideas,' Stiller said.
And it could go beyond TV: Stiller said he's excited about the idea of a Lumon video game, though there is not yet one in development.
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