Adam Scott just revealed how long 'Severance' takes to film — and that could be bad news for season 3

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Turns out, good art takes time

Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, John Turturro and Britt Lower in Severance
(Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

At this point, we've been conditioned to wait a long time for "Severance" episodes. The sci-fi thriller debuted on Apple TV Plus on Feb. 18, 2022 ... and then it took another 35 months to get the season premiere of "Severance" season 2. Last month, when I wrote about Apple TV Plus head of programming Matt Cherniss signaling that season 3 could be over a year away, people were bummed, but not exactly shocked.

But now we have a clearer picture of why it takes so long for new "Severance" episodes to be made. On yesterday's (Aug. 12) episode of the podcast "Good Hang with Amy Poehler," her former "Parks and Recreation" co-star, and star of "Severance," Adam Scott, sat down with her and revealed just how long it takes to film an episode of the Emmy-nominated show.

"Well, it depends," Scott told his former TV wife when asked about how long it takes to film a single episode of the show. "It's long. Season 2, I think it was 186 days for the season. Which is a long time." Scott then broke it down further. "I think one episode took like six weeks and then it’s averaged out because we shoot them three at a time, all mixed up together."

Adam Scott in "Severance," now streaming on Apple TV Plus.

(Image credit: Apple TV)

Still, Scott believes that this approach to filming multiple episodes at a time works to the benefit of Apple's acclaimed drama. "The accidental thing that that did," he said, referring to season 1, specifically, "You know the first few episodes of any show are a little shaky and everyone is finding their tone a little bit or their characters or whatever? It spread that out over the entire season. So it kind of felt, more or less, fully realized."

I won't expect season 3 until 2027

Scott now joins a long list of people hammering home the point that this show takes a long time to make. Weeks-long shoots for a single episode — half a year spent filming season 2 alone — mean that annual season premieres just aren't feasible.

To be fair, nobody has been promising a quick turnaround. Back in March, executive producer Ben Stiller told the ITV morning show "This Morning" that "Severance" season 3 is coming "as fast as possible," but not that it'd be here any time soon.

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That timeline gets especially drawn out when filming hasn't even started. In his comments last month, Cherniss said that production had yet to begin on "Severance" season 3, meaning if they started filming today, they probably wouldn't even be done filming the next season of the show until the end of winter in 2026.

There, admittedly, has been some mixed messaging on that front. While Cherniss says production hasn't started, in January, Stiller gave a production update on season 3 and revealed that the show's creative team was already working on the new season. A month later, in February, Stiller repeated his claim that "Severance" was already back in production, right before Apple officially greenlit season 3.

It's entirely possible this is just a case of Cherniss meaning "filming" when he says production, and Stiller referring to the early pre-production work, including writing scripts. If that's the case, both of them are probably telling the truth.

But regardless, I can't imagine this show entering post-production until mid-2026, at which point Apple probably holds season 3 for a January or February Apple TV Plus release date in 2027, just like it did for season 1 in 2022 and season 2 in 2025.

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Malcolm McMillan

Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made.

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Malcolm McMillan
Malcolm McMillan
Streaming Editor

Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made.

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