It's Waffle Party Time: The First 'Severance' Season Two Trailer Is Here Ahead of Its January 2025 Return

Thinking about work-life balance when January hits is an annual tradition. The Christmas break has been and gone, everyone is making resolutions for the new year, and better dividing your time between your professional and personal realms becomes a goal for most. Come January 2025, the subject will get a bigger push via a hugely anticipated TV returns — and so will how work-life balance can weigh on your mind, or not.

Capitalising on perfect timing, Apple TV+ will finally end the wait for more Severance, the sci-fi mindbender where disconnecting from your job come quittin' time — and giving your gig 100-percent of your focus during your daily grind — has become literal in a nightmarish way. At Lumon Industries, employees agree to undertake the titular procedure, which splits their memories between work and home. That tale will continue from Friday, January 17, 2025, a date that no one will want surgically removed from their head between now and then.

This news calls for a waffle party, an egg bar or a melon bar. In the upcoming second season of the series — which was one of the best new shows of 2022 — more celebrations must be on the way based on the first sneak peek at new footage from back in June. Apple TV+ has now added to that initial glimpse with a first proper teaser trailer for Severance's second season. It's still brief, putting most of its emphasis on the elevator that Lumon's workers take to its labyrinthine workspace, as well as the verbal agreement that the show's key characters gave to having their recollections severed.

If you missed season one, its dive into the kind of scenario that Black Mirror might've dreamed up, and technology that could've been used if Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was about punching the clock instead of romance, pushed Macrodata Refinement division employee Mark S (Adam Scott, Loot) to the fore. He willingly signed up for severance, all to help process his grief over the death of his wife. And he's happy with the situation until his work BFF Petey (Yul Vazquez, The Outsider) leaves suddenly without saying goodbye, then new staff member Helly (Britt Lower, American Horror Stories) comes in to replace him — and instantly starts questioning the insidious setup, the rules and restrictions needed to keep it in place, and why on earth her "outie" (as the outside versions of Lumon employees are known) agreed to this in the first place.

In season two, Mark and his work pals will attempt to dig deeper into the consequences of the severance procedure, and trying to escape it. There isn't much more detail in the trailer, but the mood is disquieting — in typical Severance fashion.

Tramell Tillman (Hunters), Zach Cherry (Fallout), Jen Tullock (Perry Mason), Michael Chernus (Carol & the End of the World), Dichen Lachman (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), John Turturro (Mr & Mrs Smith), Christopher Walken (Dune: Part Two) and Patricia Arquette (High Desert) also star — and season two newcomer Gwendoline Christie (Wednesday) also pops up in the sneak peek.

Ben Stiller (Escape at Dannemora) is back as a director on five episodes, and executive producer across the whole season, with ten episodes on the way. Apple TV+ will drop instalments through until Friday, March 21, 2025.

Check out the first trailer for Severance season two below:

Severance returns for season two on Friday, January 17, 2025 via Apple TV+.