Looks Like Severance Is Making Big Creative Changes Behind The Scenes For Season 3, But I'm More Excited Than Worried

After waiting roughly eleven millennia (or three years) for Severance’s sophomore season to follow-up on the mind-shattering Season 1 cliffhanger, many fans quickly fell right back into hyper-theorizing habits like no time had passed. Now that its second finale is hitting the 2025 TV schedule, the hunger for the not-yet-confirmed Season 3 has fully taken over this particular outie’s brain, which makes the first big update about the mystery-thriller’s future so intriguing.

While creator Dan Erickson and the executive-producing director Ben Stiller are still the general head honchos behind the scenes of Severance’s endless and runnable hallways, it’s being reported by Nexus Point News that the co-showrunners for Seasons 1-2 have exited and been replaced, and the same goes for the entire writers room. It’s a shocking turn of events, considering the show’s brand of existential, easter egg-filled storytelling is such a draw for fans, but I’m choosing to be more excited than woeful.

Let's take a closer look at those dread-laden numbers, fellow Macrodats.

Severance Swapped Out Its Showrunners For Season 3

For its first two seasons, Severance boasted Chris Black (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) and Mark J. Friedman (Wayward Pines) as showrunners, even though Erickson and Stiller often handle promotional interviews in the way that other series' showrunners tend to. In any case, both reportedly exited their roles in the gap between Season 2 and whatever comes next.

Taking over as co-showrunners are two highly talented creatives who are well-versed in genre storytelling. First is Mary Laws, who co-wrote Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon before writing and producing for AMC's Preacher, landing a similar stint on HBO's Succession, and showrunning Hulu's local-legend anthology Monsterland, among other projects.

Joining Laws will be Eli Jorne, who worked as a writer/producer on such wild-concept comedies as Elijah Wood's Wilfred, Patrick Stewart's Blunt Talk, and Jason Sudeikis' animation hybrid Son of Zorn. More recently, however, he's been a creative force for the indie wrestling drama Heels and The Walking Dead franchise, where he worked on the flagship series before creating the follow-up The Walking Dead: Dead City for Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan.

Weirdly enough, Severance's second season started to feel more like one of The Walking Dead's quasi-anthologized seasons where episodes focused on smaller groups rather than the entire ensemble. So Laws and Jorne together makes for a potentially perfect fit.

Severance Writers Room Has Been Completely Restaffed

The two other exiting writers noted in the initial report are producer Amanda Overton (Monarchy: Legacy of Monsters) and supervising producer Anna Ouyang Moench (Beef). No reasons were given for these or other exits, but one wonders if Monarch's upcoming second season had anything to do with it, given both Overton and Chris Black are involved with it. Meanwhile, Moench is noted as being an EP on the second season of Netflix's Beef, so that may have also been part of it.

Joining Mary Laws and Eli Jorne are a quartet of incoming Writers Room additions, which are noted as follows:

• Lauren Bello (Producer) - writer on Foundation, writer/editor on The Sandman
• Ezra Claytan Daniels (Co-Executive Producer) - writer on Night Sky, writer/editor on Doom Patrol, writer for Black anthology horror film Horror Noire
• Sean Clements (Co-Executive Producer) - host of podcast Hollywood Handbook, writer/producer on Ash vs Evil Dead, writer/actor/co-EP on Kevin Can F*** Himself
• Aiyana Kim White (Executive Story Editor) - writer/editor on Tiny Pretty Things, writer/co-producer on Lucifer, writer/co-EP on Cross

It's not clear whether or not these will be the only changes made to Severance's creative team, or if other writers will be added in time. It's assumed that Ben Stiller will still be handling at least half of any upcoming episodes as a director, but no word on what others may get behind the camera.

I'd Be More Worried If The New Creative Team Didn't Come From A+ Shows

More often than one might expect, creative teams get overhauled due to one or more problems cropping up behind the scenes, sometimes regarding workplace behavior more than anything creative-minded. And studio execs often fill the gaps by promoting from within, which isn't always the best move, depending on the show.

Thankfully, no such salacious. reports have surfaced tied to Severance as of yet, so if we can buy into the idea that the changes were organic and with the show's best interests in mind, then there's legitimate reason to be excited about these changes, as opposed to fretting over the quality of the show. Had the new showrunners been completely new to the industry, or had worked only on unscripted or completely disparate projects prior, it might have sparked a different and more desperate reaction.

But I love the fact that Severance's likely third season will be crafted by brains who worked on brainy and twisty shows like Succession, Ash vs Evil Dead, Doom Patrol and The Sandman. And hopefully they'll be way quicker about writing it all, too, while I'm throwing all my nearby coins into the wishing well.

Severance's Season 2 finale will be available to stream with an Apple TV+ subscription on Friday, March 21.