Commuters trudging through Grand Central Station in New York City got an eyeful of Apple TV+ series Severance on Tuesday. That’s because employees of the bizarre workplace dramedy’s fictional Lumon Industries appeared to work on Lumon terminals behind glass for all to see in the historic train terminal’s grand halls.
Severance stars Adam Scott, Zach Cherry and Britt Lower entered the fake Lumon workspace Tuesday afternoon. And soon enough, Patricia Arquette and Tramell Tillman appeared. Earlier in the day, other people staffed the workstations.
That promotional stunt and a new “Lumon Is Listening” video, which promotes Lumon’s Severance brain surgery as a work-life balance solution, go hand-in-hand with the show’s own creepy weirdness. Check out the images and video below!
Severance season 2 promos try to match the workplace dramedy’s weirdness
Apple TV+ seems to have plenty of fun with its new promotional marketing for season two of engrossingly strange hit series Severance. The new season starts streaming Friday. And a new video online and an installation in New York City’s Grand Central Station want to make sure people tune in. Oh, and you can also get ready by watching the season two trailer and a sneak peek video at the first episode’s first eight minutes.
Several commenters on the social media posts shown below mentioned watching Severance season one multiple times as they eagerly anticipate season two. I’ve watched most of the first season as well. It’s just as good the second time around.
Severance stars get to work at Grand Central Station
None other than Severance director and executive producer Ben Stiller posted video Tuesday of three of the show’s stars reporting for work in the clear cubicle inside Grand Central Station. Scott plays Mark S., who manages the data refiners. And two of the refiners — Lower (as Helly R.) and Cherry (Dylan G.) — also appeared, while John Turturro (Irving B.) was apparently out sick or something. Arquette (Harmony Cobel) and Tillman (Mr. Milchik) also made appearances.
Grand Central right now. #Severance pic.twitter.com/VBcFzi4Bh3
— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) January 14, 2025
Right now c xx
— Ben Stiller (@benstiller.redhour.com) 2025-01-14T21:35:30.341Z
In addition to Stiller’s clips on social media, Apple released a polished video Wedneday documenting the Severance pop-up in Grand Central Station. Watch it now (and groove to the loopy goodness of the Severance theme song):
Apple also released a bizarre YouTube short promoting the severanceballoon.com website. Go to the site and you can upload a personal photo and … put your face on a balloon.
Apple even added a Lumon Industries computer to its homepage. And no, you can’ buy one — at least not yet.
Image: Apple
Watch the creepy ‘Lumon Is Listening’ video
Monday’s new promo video, below, entitled “Lumon Is Listening,” takes the form of a dated infomercial for the Severance procedure at Lumon Industries. That’s the mysterious company where the show is set. Looking exactly like it was made in the late 1970s, the video promotes the Severance brain surgery as a solution for better work-life balance that everyone should try. It separates an employee’s work consciousness, or “innie,” from their private outside life, or “outie.”
The fact that some innies feel like trapped slaves desperate for freedom goes unmentioned, of course. The video’s narrator is Natalie, a Lumon executive assistant who is the only character who speaks for the Board, a force in her headset even the top managers never interact with directly.
Check out more images and video of Severance pop-up at Grand Central Station
As shown in photographs and video above and below, Lumon Industries personnel got to work Tuesday in clear enclosures in New York City’s Grand Central Station. They plugged away on old-school Lumon computer terminals. And they appeared oblivious to the hordes of commuters walking past them.
On the show, Lumon employees on the Severed floor’s Macrodata Refinement department — the four key characters in the story — work on the terminals. They corral sequences of numbers into boxes based on emotions the numbers provoke. It is, of course, weird and mysterious — like virtually all aspects of the groundbreaking series.
And when several of the show’s celebrity cast members showed up in the “workplace,” crowd gathered to take photos of them.
See Severance‘s Grand Central Station pop-up photos on X
wow, amazing #severance pop up at Grand Central pic.twitter.com/rxFVscCgVn
— Parker Ortolani (@ParkerOrtolani) January 14, 2025
Watch the TikTok video from @bigbrozelle:
@bigbrozelle Severance Apple TV Grand Central Pop Up #apple #severance #grandcentral
We originally published this post on Apple TV+ Severance season two promos on January 14. We updated the information.
