There is no shortage of fan theories floating around online in the “Severance” fandom.
Speculation abounds about characters’ true identities (Was that really Helly R. at the end of Season 2?), their loyalties (Is that menace we sense from Christopher Walken’s Burt Goodman?) and their purposes at Lumon (Goats? Macrodata refinement?). We could go on.
But director and executive producer Ben Stiller, Emmy-nominated this year for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, at least cleared up one fan theory on Monday’s podcast episode of “WTF With Marc Maron,” shutting down the suggestion that the severed “innie” employees of Lumon are actually lowering to Hell when they get in the elevator and descend to the severed floor.
“That would be the most obvious,” he said while laughing, apparently thinking such a twist would be pretty basic. “They’re in Hell.“
The topic came up as host Marc Maron praised the series for its blending of genres. The Apple TV+ project — with an impressive 27 Emmy nominations for its second season, the most of any series this year — fuses the confines of a workplace comedy to horror to sci-fi to romantic drama, all while retaining its propulsive mysteries around Lumon, the cult-like legacy of founder Kier Eagan and more.
“At its core, this is kind of an office comedy, because it does function that way in terms of their dynamic,” Maron said. “But then all the other layers of things, it’s almost like, it’s not that it’s nothing, but it just kind of gives life to the coldness of the rest of it.”
“Right, it does become, like, it’s a workplace, but they’re in, like, maybe in Hell — we don’t know,” Stiller said, laughing and quickly course-correcting. “That’s not, by the way, what it is. That would be the most obvious: They’re in Hell.“
“But isn’t it amazing you create this canvas for people to, like, because it’s bordering on sci-fi, that they can think anything?” Maron asked.
“Yes, I’ve never been in that world before, and it’s amazing. It’s amazing,” Stiller admitted. “And it’s really fun! It’s fun to be, because then you’re like, ‘Oh wow, we actually, if we do this in a way that’s deliberate, it can be really entertaining and fun to give people — the freedom to have those theories.”
Sitting in conversation with TheWrap’s Visionaries longform interview series recently, Stiller joined “Severance” star Adam Scott and reflected on their series’ unique themes, tone and complexities. They both remembered worrying whether anyone would watch it.
“The billboards went up before Season 1, and I saw my face, and I was like, Oh s–t. Like, What is going to happen? Are we just going to be made fun of?” Scott recalled.
“Or ignored,” Stiller added.
“As far as, like, how it will be received by people or critics or whatever, we have absolutely no control over that,” Scott continued. “So it’s time to just push it out in the world and let it go.”
Fortunately for Scott and Stiller, “Severance” was anything but ignored.
Listen to Stiller’s full interview with Maron on “WTF” here.
