‘Severance’ season 2 trailer gives Adam Scott’s Mark a game-changing surprise

Calling all Lumon Industries employees: It’s time to officially return to the offices from hell on Friday, January 17, 2025, when the highly anticipated second season of Severance debuts.

To celebrate, the bosses at Apple TV+ issued a notice of return — ahem, teaser trailer — today for the new season, which will stream one new episode every Friday through March 21.

In the clip, below, Mark (Adam Scott) appears to be lost in the office’s labyrinth as audio snippets from season 1 flash through his mind. Images of the other characters and a missing poster for his wife are played throughout, and it all culminates with him walking into his Lumon office cubicle to find three totally different coworkers waiting for him.

“Who are you people?” he asks, as Lumon supervisor Seth (Tramell Tillman) comes in with a huge bunch of blue balloons with Mark’s face on them.

“Welcome back, Mark S. Been a minute,” Seth tells him, ominously.

To recap, per the show’s official logline, in season 1, “Mark Scout leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. 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. In season 2, Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.”

Season 2 reunites its ensemble cast of stars including Emmy Award nominee Scott, Tillman, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, Jen Tullock, Michael Chernus, Dichen Lachman, Emmy Award winner John Turturro, Academy Award winner Christopher Walken, and Academy and Emmy Award winner Patricia Arquette, and welcomes new series regular Sarah Bock.

The series previously announced a whole slew of other new hires joining for season 2: Alia Shawkat (Search Party), Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), John Noble (Fringe), Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie), Bob Balaban (The Chair), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (The Tourist), Robby Benson (Beauty and the Beast), and Stefano Carannante (Mirabilia).

Severance is executive produced by Ben Stiller, who also directs five episodes this season in addition to directors Uta Bresiewitz, Sam Donovan, and Jessica Lee Gagné. The series is written, created, and executive produced by Dan Erickson.

Severance season 2 is also executive produced by John Lesher, Jackie Cohn, Mark Friedman, Beau Willimon, Jordan Tappis, Donovan, Caroline Baron, Richard Schwartz and Nicholas Weinstock. In addition to starring, Scott and Arquette serve as executive producers as well. The studio is Fifth Season.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Global audiences can report back to the Lumon offices on Jan. 17, and can complete mandatory memory training by catching up on season 1, currently streaming on Apple TV+. They can also watch the full teaser, above.