Apple Surprises Fans with First Eight Minutes of ‘Severance’ Season 2

The wait is over.

Almost three years after “Severance” Season 1 premiered on Apple TV+, the first eight minutes of Season 2 are now available on the streaming service. Apple released the opening of Season 2, Episode 1 nearly a month before its scheduled premiere on January 17, 2025.

“Severance” Season 1 ended with Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), and Irving (John Turturro) experiencing their lives outside of Lumon Industries, thanks to coworker Dylan (Zach Cherry) staying behind to override the company’s control over their split minds. Irving drove to the house of his Lumon love Burt (Christopher Walken), Helly discovered that her Outie is actually descended from the company founder, and Mark learned that his Outie’s late wife is former Lumon employee Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) — and that his boss Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) was also his neighbor.

Season 2 picks up immediately after — at least for Mark’s Innie. His eyes blink open in the Lumon elevator, and for the first few minutes of the episode he runs around the severed floor’s sanitary white hallways, noticing some new decor but mostly not a soul. He finally returns to Macro Data Refinement, where he finds none of his friends, but three new colleagues — and a new floor manager, Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), who looks barely old enough to join the workforce.

After the cold open, Mr. Milchick (Trammell Tillman) explains that Mark’s old MDR team were hailed as heroes for what they did five months ago (!), and that they became “the face of Severance reform.” He has no love to spare for Cobel, who he says was believed to be pursuing a relationship with both Mark’s Innie and Outie. Despite Milchick’s claims that Lumon has reformed, he tells Mark that none of his other colleagues agreed to return to the company.

That might be true for now — though Milchick isn’t known for his honesty — but the Season 2 trailer depicts the old MDR crew reuniting on the severed floor, discussing what they saw outside and what to do next. Mark is on a mission to rescue his Outie’s ex-wife, whoever and wherever she is, and he’ll have to slip past a stronger, smarter, and more brutal company to do so.

“Severance” Season 2 will consist of 10 episodes; the premiere episode streams globally on Apple TV+ on Friday January 17, 2025. Subsequent episodes will roll out every Friday through March 21.