Severance may have started back in 2022 and has only two seasons released to date, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming one of the most popular thriller television shows of all time. With a mind-blowing storyline that didn’t hesitate to have viewers constantly at the edge of their seats, the masterpiece’s only drawback was the wait time it took between its first and second seasons.
Nonetheless, when the show finally came out to deliver with its season 2, the result was nothing short of spectacular as both fans and critics were mostly as amazed with it to the core as the first season. But the surprising part is that things could have been a lot different because the show creators initially planned to pull a Game of Thrones stunt on it that could’ve ruined the show.
Severance S2 was almost ruined with a Game of Thrones-style stunt
The second season of Severance finally made its way to the screens earlier this year in the middle of January and recently concluded its run with its tenth episode released on March 21. This release notably came almost three years after the first season went off the air. Regardless, this sequel season was a satisfying one as well.
Almost playing out as spectacularly as its preceding season, season 2 seemed to play with all the right cards as show creator Dan Erickson, along with the rest of the team, created a masterpiece sequel season that continued Mark’s (played by Adam Scott) journey in an equally mystifying yet captivating way. But it could have been different.
For one, as the show creator himself admitted during a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, the creative team behind the smash-hit thriller series actually briefly considered opting for an earlier endpoint for the recently ended season. Additionally, they also contemplated having a shorter season, just like Game of Thrones did.
However, this creative decision wasn’t without some critical and genuine consideration. As it turns out, like they ruined a lot of other plans, the dual Hollywood strikes—i.e. the SAG-AFTRA and the WGA strike—in 2023 compounded a lot of delays with this season too. So opting for a shorter season would have been the easier way out.
Why Dan Erickson ended up choosing the other road for Severance S2 instead
While they did briefly consider shortening the second season of a series that was being tremendously anticipated by fans worldwide, show creator Dan Erickson and his team eventually settled on delivering as much as was expected from them. This was because they realized this was necessary for everything they had been building toward all along.
During the interview with the Los Angeles Times, Erickson opened up about the same about their decision to not pull the shorten-the-season stunt, saying, “We quickly just realized that we felt this was the end of the season. It was what everything was building toward.” And this decision they ended up taking, unarguably, was only for the best.
This is because a brutal thrashing was witnessed previously when Game of Thrones pulled a similar move. As fans must remember, the show suffered tremendously when it decided to have its last two seasons have fewer episodes as compared to the rest. This ended up ruining the show as it failed to live up to fans’ expectations, earning their sincere criticism.
The same could have been the case with Severance season 2, if not worse, since a shorter season after an almost-3-year long wait would have seriously disappointed fans, leading to bleak and disapproving reviews from them. But thankfully, Erickson made the right decision, and here we are, with the series’ season 2 winning a perfect 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Severance Season 2 can currently be streamed on Apple TV+.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
