Q&A: ‘Severance’ is renewed for Season 3. Ben Stiller once thought the series might not get made

LOS ANGELES — “Severance” is beloved by critics and audiences alike. But there was a time when star Adam Scott and Ben Stiller, who executive produces and directs the Apple TV+ series, worried it might never get made. One pandemic, two historic Hollywood strikes and a three-year gap between Seasons 1 and 2 later, Apple TV+ confirmed a third season Friday, the morning after the release of the second season’s finale. And one of the, I think, luxuries of being able to make the show like this is that we’re able to kind of look at what we made and go, “Wait, you know, this doesn’t work,” or “That doesn’t work,” or “Let’s try this new idea.” So, any time we’ve had delays, especially the first season we were in prep and were about to start shooting, then COVID hit so we had an extra six months to work on the scripts and all the other ideas that we were developing. OK, let’s close up shop and see when we can get back together.” And it ended up, like Ben said, being beneficial in the long run.