The Severance Season 2 trailer is here, and we have so many questions

The three-year wait for Severance Season 2 will end on January 17th, 2025, bringing the first of many weekly watercooler television moments in 2025. Are you ready?

The pressure to reply to your boss's emails over the holiday season never fails to prompt discussions about the right to disconnect and frustrations with everyday surveillance. But try to imagine a future where workers have a computer chip implanted in their brains that seamlessly switches off their work memories when they leave the office.

Before you get outraged at the suggestion, this is not your destiny. It's the basic premise of Severance, a word-of-mouth global hit TV Series on Apple TV+. If you have not seen season one yet, you should catch up before reading any of the light spoilers below.

Season one of Severance begins with a group of employees at Lumon Industries who agreed to a brain implant that would separate their work (Innie) and home (outie) selves. As the season progresses, the main characters plot an escape plan that allows them to blur the lines between their two sets of memories.

The season finale involved the characters' work halves finally getting a glimpse of the outside world and the ultimate cliffhanger before the credits rolled. Viewers became obsessed with the finale as thousands of fan theories spread across the internet.

When is Severance season 2 coming out?

Nearly three years later, Apple TV+ has been busy drip-feeding excitement with a series of teaser trailers for the second season of Severance. The new episodes are expected to drop on January 17th, with new episodes released weekly. But it's left millions of fans with more questions than answers.

The first teaser trailer clocked in at just 40 seconds and revealed little more than a hint of the aftermath of the season one finale. We are also briefly introduced to Gwendoline Christie's new character, who says the line, "You should have left."

Severance fans had to wait until October for the second teaser trailer to drop. This time, the trailer focussed on Mark returning to his office only to discover that his old colleagues from the macrodata refinement team have been replaced.

Apple's description teased viewers with the line, "Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier."

"This daring experiment in "work-life balance" is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself."

Building on the anticipation for season two, a full-length trailer finally landed on December 7, reigniting debates around what to expect and revisiting fan theories online.

The good news is that Adam Scott (Mark Scout), Patricia Arquette (Harmony Cobel/Mrs. Selvig), John Turturro (Irving), Britt Lower (Helly R/Helena), Zach Cherry (Dylan), Dichen Lachman (Ms. Casey/Gemma), Jen Tullock (Devon), Michael Chernus (Ricken), Tramell Tillman (Milchik) and Christopher Walken (Burt Goodman) are all returning to season 2.

The season two trailer has sparked intrigue by showing the "innies" venturing outdoors in winter. Could this be a supervised "field trip" for the MDR employees? Such a shift in environment raises questions about how Lumon's control extends beyond the office.

Fan theories and unanswered questions

The season is expected to resume right where season one left off, with the "innies" having briefly seized control outside the confines of Lumon Industries. The creators have hinted at "dire consequences" for Mark and his friends. Some fans believe that the company might attempt to erase the memories of Mark and his colleagues.

Another fan theory is that cloning might play a role, with the curious goats from season one possibly serving as early experiments. Could Lumon's severance procedure extend beyond memory manipulation to biological experimentation?

We’re several episodes into Severance, and it’s as good as everyone says. But so far the most unsettling thing from the show is the idea of a “melon party,” and the implication that anyone would be incentivized by getting to have one. pic.twitter.com/3shH0Xth14

undefined Radley Balko (@radleybalko) January 1, 2023

Elsewhere, many are beginning to question Harmony Cobel's true motives, and some fans are suggesting that she might not be the primary antagonist. Instead, driven by personal reasons, potentially connected to a loved one in a condition similar to Gemma, Mark's presumed-dead wife. This theory also aligns with the theory that Lumon orchestrated the car accident that "killed" Gemma.

Exploring the allure of Severance and our split realities

There is much more to Severance than a nightmarish concept of using brain implants to achieve a better work-life balance. Its universal appeal can be attributed to our present reality, where most of us seamlessly become different versions of ourselves in the office and when we are hanging out with friends and family.

After a three-year wait, fan theories are going into overdrive. So, when returning to your office in 2025, expect to hear many conversations around water coolers about innies, outies, microdata refiners, waffle parties, and goats.

If you want to be a part of those conversations, consider this a gentle reminder to check out or revisit season one of Severance in preparation for the unmissable second season.