Adam Scott as Mark S in the Apple TV+ sci-fi psychological thriller. Apple TV+ Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment It's hard to refute the greatness of Severance, which leads the Emmys race with 27 nominations, but few shows raise as many questions - or spark as many fan theories - as the retro-futuristic Apple TV+ series. THR posed many of ours to creator and showrunner Dan Erickson, who was game to answer (most of) them, including where the show's deepest, darkest secrets are virtually buried. *** Congrats on an insane number of Emmy noms. I wrote a story in which I said season one deserved the more accolades of the two - but that's more about how much I think season one was under-appreciated. What's your reaction to all of that? Related Stories TV Britt Lower's Intense 'Severance' Audition Video Shows Helly R. Already Fully Formed (Exclusive) TV 'I Will Find You' First Look: Author Harlan Coben Reveals Biggest Change for Netflix Adaptation (Exclusive) I think that however people perceive it is certainly fair. I also think that there is something about the first season of any show and coming in and discovering that world and having all of those intriguing questions raised. You know, there's certainly nothing easy about making TV at any stage, but I do think it's easier to raise those intriguing questions than to continue the story and answer those questions - or some of them in a way that is satisfying to people. And so for me as a fan, I often find myself feeling affection or nostalgia for that first season. But I think that the response we've got on the second (season) is really the best that I could have asked for. And I do think that people are becoming more familiar with the show and starting to really appreciate the work of a lot of the actors who weren't nominated in the first season. I love so much that a lot of those people are now being recognized. There was a lot of stuff that sort of flew under the radar, I think, in that first run. I don't know how this got in my head at some point, but did you or Ben (Stiller) ever say Severance would be three seasons and done? No. We still haven't to this day said what exactly it's going to be in terms of length. So, no. Do you know how many seasons you're gonna do? We are pretty sure. We're pretty sure, but we're keeping that internal at the moment. I asked this to Britt (Lower) as well, but do you 100 percent promise that was Helly R. in the season two finale and not Helena Egan? Like, you're not screwing with us. Yeah, we'll screw with you on some things, but on this we're being as open as possible. Yeah, that was Helly. I recall you telling me you had a physical bible that contained all of the show's mythology. Do you still have that? Well, I think that that physical binder may have gone in the shredder at some point in the transition between seasons. But we've still got the document that contains sort of all of the lore and the history of the company and of the characters. So, yeah, it may not be physical, it may be digital at this point, but it still exists. Who has access to it? So yeah, I'm working with two EPs, and so they've got access to it. And Ben has access to it - basically all the executive producers. And then we share that stuff with Apple and others, sort of on a case-by-case basis. It's not like a leather-bound thing where we blow dust off of it. It's on a hard drive somewhere. Is it fair to assume that Mark S. leaves the Lumon building and becomes Mark Scout again at some point (in season three)? I think at this point you kind of can't assume anything. I think what we wanted to do was dramatically change the format of the show in a way so that we're not seeing the same thing we've seen before. So I think at this point, anything could happen. Zach Cherry, Adam Scott, Britt Lower and John Turturro in 'Severance' season two, episode four. Apple Did you write a version where Mark S. leaves (the severed floor) with Gemma (in the season two finale)? I like to think there's an alternate universe, but our plan was always- we basically had that ending for the season pretty well-established when we started conceiving it. That was one of the first things that we came up with. And the reason for that was just, I really love the idea that he starts- you know, the first thing you see (in the season three premiere) is [Mark S.] running to go find not Helly and Irving and Dylan, but Miss Casey, because at that starting point of the season, he feels very much like indebted to his Outtie, or like he's sort of an appendage of his Outtie. And so at the end, it was like, "What if we get him all the way there and he gets her out, but then he doesn't follow?" Explain the mechanics of why a door to the stairwell on the MDR floor turns a severed employee into their Outtie, but the same pe