Here, have a tiny taste of Severance to tide you over ’til January

SZA put it best when she said she “was tryna be polite but I really need a new season of Severance right the fuck now.” Between the dual writers and actors strikes and the generally slow pace with which streaming services produce television, it’s already been more than two years since the show debuted. Unfortunately, there’s still a ways to go before the series returns: Apple TV+ announced today that the second season will premiere on January 17, 2025. Poor SZA is not going to be happy. At least there’s a teaser to accompany this news so we can get a brief glimpse into what’s going on with Mark (Adam Scott) and the rest of the Macrodata Refinement team.

This “teaser” is accurately named—there’s very little to go on in these clips as to what the second season will be about. There appears to be some lurking and snooping around Lumon Industries; brief glimpses at the innies and outies of Helly (Britt Lower) and Irving (John Turturro); intimidating shots of Cobel (Patricia Arquette) and Milchick (Tramell Tillman); and what looks like the return of Reghabi (Karen Aldridge), the former Lumon surgeon who reintegrated Petey (Yul Vazquez). Apple’s synopsis doesn’t give away much either: “In season two, Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.” There’s only one new bit of dialogue spoken in the teaser, as a new character played by Gwendoline Christie ominously declares to Mark and Helly, “You should have left.”

Of course the wait for more Severance has been made all the more agonizing due to the intensity of the cliffhanger in the first season finale. Most notably, Helly’s outie was revealed to be none other than Helena Eagan, daughter of the Lumon CEO, who underwent the severance procedure to help gain public support for the project. When Helly stepped on stage at Helena’s event, she announced to the crowd that severance was akin to torture for innies. Meanwhile, as Milchick attempted to stop Dylan (Zach Cherry) from using the overtime contingency, Irving discovered that Burt (Christopher Walken) had a relationship on the outside, and Mark raced against time to announce that his wife (Dichen Lachman) was actually alive, working at Lumon under the guise of Ms. Casey.

According to Variety, Christie is just one of several new faces joining the show, in addition to Sarah Bock, Alia Shawkat, Merritt Wever, Bob Balaban, Robby Benson, Stefano Carannate, John Noble, and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson. Other than that, we’re totally in the dark about what happens next—and the stars aren’t spilling any spoilers. Last year, The A.V. Club tried to ask Patricia Arquette for details, but she kept tight-lipped.“Every time somebody asks me that, my Cobel part comes out, and I want to punish them,” she laughed. “Or I wanna lie to them. I can tell you this. I think people will be very surprised.”