Ben Stiller frequently engaged with Severance fans during the airing of the hit Apple TV+ show. The actor/director says that he found the interactions with the show’s fans “inspiring,” because he didn’t have the chance to do that growing up. Stiller has directed 11 episodes of the series and acts as the show's executive producer.
Season 2 of Severance earned a huge fan following, with people soon taking to social media to comment on theories, romantically pair together their favorite characters, and predict what they thought would happen in the season finale. Stiller was often seen liking and interacting with these fan posts, which were sometimes as fun to follow as watching the show itself.
During a SXW panel the filmmaker said the huge critical and fandom reception is a testament to the show because audiences had so many options to choose from. “In this day and age, it’s so hard to have something that breaks through, and that you can actually get people to watch and to see, because there’s so much,” Stiller explained per IndiWire.
The Meet The Parents star regularly responds to Severance fans on X. Most notably, he replied to a fan battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, after she spoke about wanting to meet the show’s cast and crew. After she reached out to him with her wishes, he invited her to a Toronto event and a special screening of the season 2 finale in LA.
How Ben Stiller deals with online criticism about Severance
Speaking at the Severance season 2 FYC event in LA, he spoke about the joy of connecting with fans online. He admitted he prefers to interact with fans of the show, and says he tends to back away when he reads criticism, although sometimes there are benefits to interacting with critics. “When somebody doesn’t like something, I’ll [still] go back and forth with them sometimes, and I find that fun, too, because usually once you start talking to somebody or interacting, something positive can come out of it. It’s also kind of fun. And at the end of the day, I don’t really take it that seriously.”
In March, one Severance viewer wrote on X that the second season was "a drag." "I don't care how slick your shots are--something needs to actually happen storywise," the user posted. The same user later took back their criticism after Ben Stiller liked the post. “I know that putting together such a show is an incredible feat. I will keep watching it and I hope season 3 comes out swinging."
The actor responded to that tweet, telling the the person who posted not to feel bad and that they were entitled to their opinion. The user later thanked Stiller for "being so chill about it."
Ben Stiller saw all your Severance theories
When season 2 of Severance started, fans couldn't help but take to social media to talk about their theories. From trying to work out what the goats meant to theories about Cobel and if Gemma was really dead, fans loved to guess what what going on at Lumon.
But Ben Stiller told People that he wasn’t letting all the fan theories affect how they made the show. Series creator Dan Erickson also admitted that while he loves reading fan theories, they can sometimes distract him. But they have a roadmap they've been following and will be sticking to that, per the outlet.
But he did admit he found some of the theories interesting. "I'll read a theory, and I'll be like, 'Oh I wish we were making that show because that sounds cool.' But generally, I have to sort of turn the other way." So maybe one of your fan theories will appear in season 3 of Severance.
Severance season 1 and 2 are streaming on AppleTV+.