Ben Stiller Leaves ‘Severance’ Director’s Chair to Star in New Apple TV+ Show
Ben Stiller [Apple TV / YouTube]
Toggle Dark Mode
In a surprising behind-the-scenes shift at Apple TV+, Ben Stiller, the well-known actor and executive producer of Severance, is stepping back from directing the popular sci-fi thriller to play the lead character in a new series. Stiller directed the first two seasons of Severance, which quickly rose to become one of Apple’s most popular original series.
While Stiller remains an executive producer on Severance and has been actively involved in Season 3 planning, he won’t direct any episodes as he pivots to several other projects.
Among these is The Off Weeks, an eight-part limited series for Apple TV+ that will follow Stiller as a writing professor who is going through a rough divorce and becomes involved in a romance with the mysterious Stella West, who will be played by co-star Jessica Chastain.
Apple gave Severance a first-season greenlight back in 2019, and at the time, there were some early conversations about Ben Stiller possibly playing an acting role in the series. However, Stiller decided to stay behind the camera, and the series moved ahead with Adam Scott in the starring role of Mark S.
Stiller’s vision for the first two seasons of the popular and offbeat psychological science fiction thriller has lifted it to the top of the viewing charts on the Apple TV+ streaming service. While Stiller says he does not expect to direct any season three episodes, he will still be involved in bringing the third season to life as a hands-on executive producer.
“I’m at the point in my life where I’m like, ‘The clock is ticking,’” Stiller told the Los Angeles Times. “Sixty sounds old. It’s hard to get around it. And of course, it’s that other thing of, like, you know what the next one is.” He laughed. “‘Oh, s—.’”
The Off Weeks is from Stiller’s production company, Red Hour. While Apple TV+ has given Stiller the green light, production is still in its early stages, so it’ll be a while before we see the series appear on the streaming service.
In addition to the new series, Stiller is also preparing for a feature film about World War II, scheduled to begin shooting in the spring, while also getting ready to star in Focker-in-Law, the fourth installment in the Meet the Parents franchise.
In October, Apple TV+ will also premiere a documentary feature Stiller made about his parents, the comedy icons Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. The new doc, Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost, will debut on October 24. In the documentary, Stiller offers a glimpse into the comedy duo, examining their cultural impact while also sharing insights into their personal life at home with Ben and his sister, Amy.
Stiller isn’t the only actor becoming an Apple TV+ regular, as Stiller’s The Off Weeks co-star Jessica Chastain is already involved in several other projects with Apple’s streaming service.
Chastain is set to premiere her first Apple TV+ project, The Savant, a limited series in which she portrays a woman, known as “the Savant,” who infiltrates online hate groups in order to prevent large-scale public attacks. The Savant will debut September 26.
While Apple has yet to make an official announcement, Deadline reported in March that Apple TV+ landed a straight-to-series order for a series called The Dealer, in which Chastain will star alongside Adam Driver in “a biting exploration of power, class, seduction and culture set inside the glittering world of the high-end art market, told through the eyes of an aspiring super gallerist, played by Jessica Chastain, and the tangled relationship with her most gifted and unnerving artist, played by Adam Driver.”
