Severance creator promises series won’t become another Lost

Lost rode waves of surreal mysteries to become one of the most popular, then frustrating, shows of its era, but the creator of the mysterious series Severance promises it will learn from Lost’s lessons.

Severance Season 1 achieved great popularity though putting its characters in outlandish scenarios, a trait brilliantly carried into Season 2 thus far. When Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof’s Lost was on the air, it attained international fame for similar reasons before concluding with what may be the most divisive ending of all time.

In a new interview with Severance creator Dan Erickson, he promises the Apple TV+ phenom will learn from Lost’s arguable mistakes.

Severance won’t become another Lost, Erickson promises

At face value, Lost and Severance have a lot in common. Both shows’ premises featured characters trapped in closed locations (Innies can’t leave, as far as they’re concerned), facing absurd and sometimes nightmarish situations, even performing seemingly random actions on old-timey computers.

In an interview with Variety, Erickson promised Severance won’t become make the same mistakes.

ABC

“I promise the show will not literally turn into Lost,” he said. “We won’t put them on an island and have Sawyer show up.”

While it would be hilarious to see the Severance cast suddenly thrust from Lumon onto a random beach, he followed up the joke with a real answer. “No — we’re very conscious of that fact that we need to know where we’re going, and we need to reward people’s patience and faith.”

That goal drove Severance’s careful plotting. “In Season 2, there are some fairly concrete answers to some of the most commonly asked questions,” he revealed, “but for the most part, they open the door to bigger mysteries that’ll ultimately lead to the big alpha thing at the end.”

New Severance episodes will release every Thursday until its finale on March 21, 2025. Check out our recap of Episode 1, a cameo you might have missed, or theories about what happened to Gemma / Ms. Casey.