As Severance returns to office, fans might recognize a familiar voice welcoming them back to the show’s surreal corporate life.
Series creator Dan Erickson recently explained how Keanu Reeves came to make a voice cameo as the building during the ‘Lumon is Listening’ video in the Apple TV+ sci-fi series’ Season 2 premiere.
“All I can say is that we talked about a couple of different people for that role,” he told Collider. “We always wanted it to be somebody that people have certain associations with, but also, it had to be a very warm presence. The Lumon building is very friendly in the context of this video, and there’s a friendliness to that particular voice and a heart to that particular voice.”
From Erickson and EP/director Ben Stiller, Severance is set in a world in which a technology allows corporate employees to surgically divide their memories of their work and personal lives.
In the 10-episode second season, Mark (Adam Scott) and his friends learn the dire consequences of meddling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.
Ben Stiller, Dan Erickson, Britt Lower and Patricia Arquette attend the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards held on Sept. 12, 2022. (Christopher Polk/NBC via Getty Images)
In addition to Scott, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Zach Cherry, Jen Tullock, Michael Chernus, Dichen Lachman, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette and new series regular Sarah Bock also star.
Erickson previously spoke to Deadline about how changes in the corporate world have influenced the show’s plot since Season 1. “It’s funny because we released Season 1 as people were starting to come back to the office. At the same time, there were some jobs where people were like, ‘Hey, maybe we don’t have to come back to the office. Maybe this is something where people could work from home,’” he said.
“So that was an unexpected context into which we were releasing the first season,” added Erickson. “But since then, we’ve had the Great Resignation, where a lot of people, especially younger people, are saying ‘Hey, does work need to play the role that it always has in our lives? Or is there another way to do this?’ But then, of course, the question is, ‘Well, what’s on the other side of that?’ You can divorce yourself from the old system, but then what is the new system? It’s a fascinating time to be living because people are trying to figure that out.”
