‘Severance’ EP Ben Stiller Compares Lumon Industries to Apple

• Ben Stiller, the ‘Severance’ director and EP, sees similarities between Lumon Industries and Apple.
• Stiller mentioned the hit AppleTV+ collection with Apple exec Eddy Cue at SXSW in Austin.
• ‘Severance’ Season 2 is presently airing and explores themes of company tradition and capitalism.

Ben Stiller, the manager producer and director of the AppleTV+ collection “Severance,” mentioned he sees similarities between the fictional company in his present and the real-life international tech large Apple Inc.

“Severance” follows a gaggle of staff at Lumon Industries whose work is so mysterious that their work personas (or “innies”) are medically severed from their exterior selves (or “outies”) with a small chip implanted of their brains.

The collection, which is within the midst of airing its second season, provides putting visuals and a nuanced tackle company tradition, the impacts of capitalism, and the depth of human emotion.

Stiller spoke in regards to the present with Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice chairman of Companies (together with AppleTV+), on the 2025 SXSW Convention & Festivals in Austin, Texas.

“I feel we have been fortunate in that once we began out, you guys gave us quite a lot of artistic freedom,” Stiller mentioned.

Stiller advised that Apple has comparable mysterious qualities that draw the viewer into Lumon in “Severance.”

He isn’t the primary one to level this out. Followers have beforehand drawn comparisons between the 2 corporations, such because the round structure at their respective headquarters and the reverence allotted to their firm founders.

“It is humorous as a result of folks speak about, ‘Oh wow, you realize, Apple is a large company, and Lumon is a large company,'” Stiller mentioned.

He added that it’s “the proper present to be on Apple” due to its aesthetic and thriller of “what is going on on” within the firm — just like Apple.

“However I’ve by no means as soon as ever gotten any, you realize, like observe or something from Apple about something we do, and I really feel like there’s an intrigue about Apple,” Stiller mentioned. “By the way in which, how is Apple doing? As a result of typically I fear, are you guys doing okay?”

Cue mentioned Apple is doing nice and dealing on creating “new issues that individuals actually love.”

Spokespersons for AppleTV+ didn’t instantly reply to Enterprise Insider’s request for remark.

All through the second season’s airing, followers have taken to social media in a frenzy to assemble theories about totally different features of the plot.

Because the present progresses, Lumon’s mission and goals grow to be more and more sinister, and Adam Scott’s Mark Scout tries to piece collectively the thriller behind his office and his severed reminiscences.

Enterprise Insider secured quotes from the interview by way of dwell closed captions from SXSW’s web site.