Ben Stiller is taking a major step back from Severance season 3

Ben Stiller is about to take a major step back from Apple TV+'s psychological thriller, Severance.
TV Academy's Inaugural Televerse Festival - "Severance" Drama Series Nominee
TV Academy's Inaugural Televerse Festival - "Severance" Drama Series Nominee | Matt Winkelmeyer/GettyImages

Now, as the Apple series pushes forward and strives to make the wait a much shorter one for fans when it comes to the third season, something shocking has been revealed: Ben Stiller will not be directing any of the third season of Severance.

As confirmed by The Wrap, Stiller is stepping away from the project to tackle a new challenge, in the form of a World War II survival movie that he has been prepping for years. As he details, “I’m at this point in my life where I’m like, ‘The clock is ticking.’ Sixty sounds old. It’s hard to get around it. And of course it’s that other thing of, like, you know what the next one is… ‘Oh, shit.’”

While he will still be involved in Severance’s third season as an executive producer, Stiller is stepping away from being as much of a hands-on creative to capitalize on his momentum and make a new passion project instead. Considering that Stiller directed eleven episodes of the series’ nineteen episodes in total, he has thus far been the defining creative voice behind the project, which makes his departure all the more notable.

Stiller is a titan of the entertainment world. For over thirty years now, Stiller has been a tremendous talent in Hollywood, cementing his place as one of the great comedic performers of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. However, something that not as many people might’ve known about Stiller is that he has also been a strong creative force behind the camera for just as long. While he’s undoubtedly best known as the face of comedy films like Zoolander and Tropic Thunder, he also wrote and directed both of those iconic films. In addition to this, he also spread his wings outside the umbrella of his genre of choice early on in life, making his directorial debut with the 1994 romantic dramedy, Reality Bites.

As the popularity of broad comedies gradually lessened over the course of the 2010s, many mainstream comedy stars either pivoted to different genres or embraced streaming models such as Netflix, which were gung-ho to foot the bill for big-budget comedies such as those produced by and starring Stiller’s friend and collaborator, Adam Sandler.

Stiller however, was uniquely suited to thrive within this environment. With his own decades-long professional background behind the lens, in the aftermath of the critical and box office failure of Zoolander 2, the multi-hyphenate creator shifted to projects that allowed him to focus more on his craft rather than his performing. This resulted in Stiller spearheading the series Escape at Dannemora for Showtime, which earned him multiple Emmy Award nominations.

Building off of this creative momentum and success, Stiller eschewed following up the series with a second season, and instead moved over to Apple to lead an original science-fiction dramedy, in the form of Severance. Severance became a massive success for Apple, and grew exponentially in size and impact between its first and second season.

Despite the fact that there was three-year gap between the two seasons, the audience was compelled by the strong filmmaking and storytelling on display, and stuck around, waiting eagerly. With Stiller not directing any episodes, it's going to be interesting to see who Apple will tab to direct in season 3, but it opens the door for both new and returning directors to bring their directing talents to the show next season.


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