Apple TV’s Neuromancer: The Perfect Severance Replacement?

It will be a while before Apple TV's sci-fi masterpiece, Severance, returns. However, while waiting for its release, viewers can anticipate the streaming service's next big sci-fi show, which will come out much sooner.

Apple TV dominated the sci-fi genre in 2025, especially towards the end with Pluribus. In the near future, its sci-fi reign will only grow from strength with the highly anticipated return of shows like Silo, Dark Matter, and For All Mankind. Unfortunately, the news around Severance suggests that its next installment is not coming out until 2026.

While eagerly waiting for Severance season 3's release, though, viewers will have the perfect opportunity to check out another potentially epic sci-fi show on Apple TV that adapts an iconic cyberpunk novel.

Neuromancer Can Be The Perfect Thematic Continuation To Apple TV’s Severance

Although Severance arguably has some cyberpunk elements, it would not necessarily qualify as an addition to the sci-fi sub-genre. However, its shared thematic elements with Neuromancer make the upcoming William Gibson show the perfect thing to watch while waiting for Severance season 3. One of the biggest thematic overlaps between the two is their portrayal of the "disemobodiment" humans feel in their "high-tech" world.

While the characters in Severance are split into innes and outies and forced to mindlessly work within a surgically enforced corporate reality, the ones in Neuromancer see their bodies as "meat" prisons and only feel alive when they are connected to the Matrix.

In both narratives, characters escape the harsh realities of their real world by decoupling their minds from their physical bodies. Both sci-fi stories also unfold in dystopian futures where the world is governed by massive corporations. While Lumon in Severance operates like a nation-state and even has its own cult-like religion, the Tessier-Ashpool Clan in Neuromancer lives in a literal orbital villa, preserving its legacy through cloning and AI.

Owing to these similarities between the two sci-fi stories, it is hard not to see Neuromancer as the perfect future projection of Severance's world. This makes its Apple TV adaptation the perfect series to watch while waiting for Severance's return.

​​​​​​​Neuromancer introduces the concept of ROM constructs, which are AI clones of human consciousness preserved after death and stored as read-only digital personalities. This concept seems reminiscent of Severance's innie/outie split, given how both reduce human identity to a controlled, compartmentalized state designed for nothing but utility.

Interestingly, there is an arc in Neuromancer in which a sex worker gets a "cut-out chip" installed in her brain. Like the Severance chip, this allows her to completely switch off her conscious brain when she engages in business with her clients.

Like Severance's severed characters, she loves how it helps her earn "free money." However, she also complaints about how the chip is not perfectly compatible with her brain, leading to memories from "work" overflowing into her consciousness brain through nightmares when she sleeps. This, too, seems reminiscent of how Severance's Irving daydreams about his outie's life.

Severance and Neuromancer are both incredible additions to the sci-fi genre in their own right. However, their shared similarities also make them perfect companion pieces in the genre. Since Neuromancer is expected to premiere sooner than Severance season 3 on Apple TV, it could be the perfect show for Severance's fans.

Neuromancer

Network Apple TV+

Showrunner Graham Roland

Directors J.D. Dillard