Dan Erickson on what inspired him to make ‘Severance’

Severance creator Dan Erickson has recently opened up about his inspiration behind the hit Apple TV + show.

During an appearance on a live episode of the Soundtracking with Edith Bowman podcast, Dan said, “I had this experience that I think is pretty unique to me, which is that I was working a job I hated.”

“I found myself walking in. I've said this a number of times, but it was a door factory. And I was working in a little office cataloguing hinges and deadbolts and other door pieces,” continued the 41-year-old.

The creator further said, “I just found myself walking in one day and thought, I don't want to do this anymore.”

“And if I have to go in today, I would prefer to just skip ahead to the eight hours and disassociate. And then the whole thing just kind of came from that,” explained Dan.

Dan shared that he expanded his idea with the assistance of Ben Stiller, who also worked on the show as an executive producer and directed several episodes.

“As I thought about the idea, and especially once Ben came on, we wanted to be sure that it was about more than just this kind of idea that we're different people at work and versus at home or that we don't like work,” he pointed out.

Dan mentioned that what they realised “is that the show is very much about the sort of identity and who we are at our core, and if we would be the same people without our memories if we had existed in a grown-up or lived in a totally different scenario”.

“In a corporate setting, we can have our humanity sort of diminished and in some cases kind of willingly diminish our own humanity, so that we can fit into that setting and what the dangers are of that,” added the creator.