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One of AppleTV+’s best shows,Severance, came with an interesting sci-fi premise in 2022. It follows a group of office employees entering the ‘Severance’ project which makes it impossible for them to remember their office life at home. Fans often wonder how such a premise was conceptualized and it turns out to be surprisingly simple.
The premise came to creator Dan Erickson when he was fantasizing about work-life balance while going to work one day. Based on this simple thread, the story manages to take audiences for a ride beyond imagination. A second season of the hit show will open for streaming within a matter of hours.
Severance’s high sci-fi concept was built on the foundation of a simple fantasy
Severancecreator Dan Erickson was a corporate employee when he came up withthe idea for the show. He shared with IndieWire that after finishing grad school, he took the first Craigslist job that he could find. While he was grateful to have a job and his employers were good people, he often had this loathing that it wasn’t what he wanted to do.
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He worked at a company in Los Angeles that distributed doors and gates and described it as a“kind of mind-numbing work.”He shared that the idea occurred to him when he was walking to work one day, wishing that he could disassociate from the next eight hours completely.
He thought to himself that he would do it if he could, later realizing that it was a messed up thing to wish for. However, his guilty fantasy gave us one of the best sci-fi shows. Erickson shared withIndieWire:
The idea for the script came because I was walking into work one day and just found myself wishing that I could skip the next eight hours entirely, and I could just disassociate. I was like, ‘I would totally do that if I could,’ and realized that was kind of a messed up thing to catch yourself wanting, so the idea for the show kind of germinated from that.
Erickson shared that he worked on the pilot of the show based on that idea for the next couple of years. He added that during this time, he worked in a string of jobs, with one of them being a proper corporate job. It was at this place that he learned a lot of“corporate doublespeak”which later ended up in the show.
Despite being a workplace series,Severance Season 2had a record-high budget
For a series that takes place mostly inside a vast office setup, fans just couldn’t believe that the second season ofSeverancecosts at least $20 million per episode (via Forbes). The 10-episode season costa total of $200 million. The exorbitant cost makes it more expensive than most high-end Netflix shows.
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For comparison,One Piececosts $18 million per episode,The Sandman$15 million,The Crown$13 million, andThe Witcher$10 million per episode. Interestingly, AppleTV+ hosts great shows set in expansive, otherworldly settings likeFoundationandFor All Mankind. However, the budget of these shows remains lower than that ofSeverance.
One of the likely reasons for the inflated costs for the studio could be the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes of 2023. The studio had to shell out millions of dollars to keep the production alive. Keeping major stars likeAdam Scott, John Turturro, andChristopher Walkenon television wasn’t cheap either.
Severance Season 2will premiere on Apple TV+ on July 31, 2025.
Hashim Asraff
Senior Writer
Articles Published :3018
Hashim Asraff is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, with over 2,800 articles published on celebrity culture, comic book movies, and major TV franchises. With a background in Sociology and a keen interest in pop culture, Hashim brings a unique lens to breaking news stories, character deep-dives, film rankings, and fan-driven perspectives.His coverage often includes the MCU, DCU, hit network shows, and celebrity profiles, giving readers a rich blend of entertainment and analysis. A longtime fan of crime and investigative series, Hashim has watched thousands of episodes of NCIS, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU, Bones, Blue Bloods, and The RookieA passionate storyteller and wordsmith, Hashim has also worked as a ghostwriter and managed multiple social media handles. He brought his writing expertise to FandomWire to also pursue his lifelong love for cinema and television.
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Adam ScottSeverance
