Ben Stiller was asked about how long it would take to release Severance Season 2 over and over and over again. Now, it’s out, and because we had to wait three years between Seasons 1 and 2, he’s already getting questions about when Severance’s third season will come out. So, in response to the wait, the show’s director and executive producer got candid about how long it takes to make this show by making a comparison to The Bear that I've actually been thinking about for years.
Since Severance has a bunch of 2025 Emmy nominations for a season that took years to make, Ben Stiller was asked by Vanity Fair if this kind of acknowledgement felt like “affirmation of it being worth the wait.” Just by watching Season 2, I knew it was worth it; however, these nods certainly help. Nevertheless, the wait still seems to bother the director, as he explained:
On a certain level, it’s just the affirmation of when you follow your instinct—knowing that you have to make sure something feels right, and that you get it to the place you need it to be. The frustration for us was that it was taking so long, honestly. Sometimes I look at the outside factors, which are beyond our control, but then also—I mean I won’t lie, I look at my own process too and go, ‘What is it?’
This is how The Bear comes into this equation. So, let me present some facts for you. Season 1 of Severance premiered on February 18, 2022, and The Bear Season 1 dropped on June 23, 2022. Then, on the 2025 TV schedule, Severance premiered Season 2 on January 17, and a few months later, on June 25, The Bear dropped its fourth season.
That means in the time it took Severance to make Season 2, The Bear released Seasons 2 and 3 and was well on its way to dropping Season 4. That’s kind of wild, and it’s something Ben Stiller has thought about, as he said:
Chris Storer will shoot an episode in an hour and a half or something on The Bear. I’m like, ‘Goddamn, why can’t I do that?’
These days, it’s commonplace to wait well over a year for a new season of a series. However, there are a few that consistently drop every year, including The Bear, which can be streamed with a Hulu subscription. I don’t know about you, but I adore having an old reliable that I know will come out around the same time every year.
However, I also get why it takes shows a very long time. A project like Severance is complex in both plot and setting, so it takes longer to make it and release it to those with an Apple TV+ subscription, plus its episodes are twice as long as the aforementioned series. Meanwhile, The Bear, for the most part, takes place in the restaurant and has 30-minute episodes.
All that said, though, Stiller didn’t back away from how hard the wait for seasons can be on both the creatives and fans. He noted how the pressure builds the longer we go between seasons, saying:
That’s the conundrum when you’re in it. You start to feel like, ‘Oh, wait a minute. It’s going to take this much longer, and then there’s going to be that much more pressure on it for people who will be saying, like, Oh, we waited this long. I hope it’s worth the wait.’ You’re just kind of stuck with that, and you have to move forward blindly.
It is certainly a conundrum, and comparing Severance to a show that’s released three seasons in the time it took to release one is quite a fact. However, I don’t think it’s one this Apple TV+ series should fret over.
As Season 2 proved, the wait was worth it, and the painstaking detail put into the series is one of the reasons it's so remarkable. It also proves that the time it takes to make a show doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about its quality.
The Bear and Severance are each excellent, and we’re getting more of both. Art takes time, and that time varies from project to project, so my advice is to just enjoy it as it comes, so these folks don’t have to stress about the amount of time they’re taking to make it. However, I do have to say, I am appreciative of the fact that Ben Stiller addressed the point about his show and the FX restaurant series that I’ve been thinking about for years now.
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