Macworld
There was muted excitement in the Macworld offices late last month when Ben Stiller revealed that filming was about to begin on Severance season 3. Excitement, because the show is brilliant and it already feels like years (it’s actually a little less than one and a half) since season 2 finished. And muted, because there’s still filming and post-production to get through and season 3 probably won’t arrive until fall 2027 at the earliest.
Fans of melancholy sci-fi are of course spoiled by Apple TV’s line-up, which also includes the multi-award-winning Pluribus. But the latest update indicates that this show too is afflicted by an extremely slow production cycle, and we likely won’t get season 2 until summer 2028, almost three years after the first.
Pluribus showrunner Vince Gilligan was questioned about season 2 this month, and replied with a heavy sigh and a warning that it would be a long time. But this weekend he provided more detail, as Forbes reports. Writing has now finished (having begun in December last year) and filming is set to begin this fall.
It isn’t clear why it took so long to write season 2, especially since Pluribus was commissioned for two seasons from the start. But this slow progress means that, based on the filming and post-production timings from season 1, Forbes estimates season 2 will drop in July 2028 “give or take a month.” That would be two years and eight months after season 1 first became available. And it seems optimistic at this point to assume that nothing else will cause further delays.
Pluribus and Severance are zeitgeist-defining TV shows. But as I wrote last week, their production cycles are so slow that they risk tarnishing their legacies. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring some better news in the coming months.