Let's be real – it's no surprise to see confirmation that Apple is hugely enamoured with one of its biggest shows, Severance. The production has brought it a slew of awards and is one of the most talked-about series out there, especially when it's actually airing, telling a twisty story with a great sci-fi premise.
Still, you don't always get the most obvious confirmation from the best streaming services that they love the production companies helping to make the series that people subscribe for. Apple bucked that trend, though, by going and literally buying the whole show.
Severance was owned and produced by Fifth Season, and Apple had paid to be the show's home, but a deal finalised at the end of 2025 and now reported by Deadline has brought Apple the full IP and all rights to the show. As a result, it'll apparently be produced by Apple Studios moving forward, with Fifth Season as an executive producer.
This isn't the first time Apple has followed this model, either, as pointed out by Deadline – it also trod this path with Silo, another high-concept sci-fi show that was an external production for its first season before coming in-house from that point onwards.
In fact, this is a pretty tried-and-true method for streamers like Apple TV, letting production houses take creative risks before accepting a higher price to buy the rights to a show once it's proven worth the risk.
This move also comes as even more of an underline for the fact that Apple is betting big on Severance. We already know it's getting a third season, and a fourth is apparently almost guaranteed to continue (and most likely end) its story after that, but this might mean an expansion of its world is also in the planning.
After all, would you spend what's presumably a whole lot of money to acquire the full rights with only a couple of seasons in the offing? Given that Severance reportedly costs as much as $20 million to make per episode, this all suggests that Apple has more plans in the works.
That's good news for those of us enjoying the show's weird, off-beat take on cerebral sci-fi – hopefully it can help speed up the wait for Season 3, too, which is already starting to feel taxing.
