Major spoilers for the Severance Season 2 premiere, “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” below.
After nearly a three-year wait, Apple TV+’s Severance has returned to streaming screens, bringing with it a handful of answers to the questions left hanging after that hell of a season cliffhanger. But out of everything asked and answered in the premiere, one of the biggest lingering queries concerns the voice actor behind the episode’s personified version of the Lumon building itself. Stick with us here.
Around the 27-minute mark of the premiere, “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” our beloved innies—Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry), and Iriving (John Turturro)—are finally back together after spending most of the episode apart in the wake of their rebellion at the end of the first season. Their reunion is cut short when menacing manager Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman) trots the quartet to the famed Break Room for potential punishment as in episodes past.
Instead, the four view an animated corporate video, which recaps the events of the last few episodes—the so-called “MDR Uprising”—with Claymation-style visuals featuring each of the series leads, before using the incident to show how the company is changing in the wake of the four’s actions. But the video begins with an appearance by the Lumon Administrative building itself, personified as a cartoonish, Clippy-like character. “Oh, hi. You probably don’t recognize me from this angle,” the voice cheekily remarks.
If you don’t have AppleTV+, you can check out an official clip that an enterprising Reddit user has uploaded that features some of the voiceover, whose tenor and tone sounds uncannily like that of…Keanu Reeves. No, we can’t say for sure yet, but it certainly sounds like none other than Mr. Wick himself as the voice of the Lumon building (enter prerequisite “Whoa” here).
We say sounds because there’s no official voice actor listed in the credits in the screeners provided for critics ahead of time for the self-identified “Lumon.” There is, however, a credit for current Saturday Night Live cast member Sarah Sherman as the Water Tower, with whom Lumon briefly chats. The whole sequence comes with an air of mystery, even by Severance standards; it was one of the handful of plot points critics were explicitly asked not to write about or discuss in pre-air coverage. And when reached for comment, Apple declined to share any further information about the voice actor’s identity with GQ. Still, give it a listen and tell us it’s not Keanu—or someone doing one of the best Reeves impressions ever.
This wouldn’t be Reeves’ first foray into voice acting: He’s taken on a number of high-profile gigs in recent years, including his recent portrayal of Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and a major role in the video game Cyberpunk 2077 as legendary franchise character Johnny Silverhand. It would also not be the first time Reeves and Severance director Ben Stiller have crossed paths professionally—legend has it that Stiller initially wanted Reeves for the role of movie star Tugg Speedman in his 2008 film Tropic Thunder, a role Stiller himself ended up taking on. So, sure, audiences may have waited almost three years for more Severance—but if it’s really Keanu, that means Stiller and Reeves have waited roughly 17 years to make something together. Regardless, Severance is back on its mystery bullshit (complimentary), and if this is what Stiller and series Dan Erickson are coming out of the gate with, who knows what other surprises await.
