Apple event ends with mysterious footage of woman disappearing

Clip thought to be linked to Apple’s ‘Severance’ show

Andrew Griffin
Wednesday 07 September 2022 15:43 EDT
Apple event ends with mysterious footage of woman disappearing

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Apple’s major iPhone event ended with mysterious footage of a woman disappear, apparently linked to one of its TV shows.

The company’s launch livestream was largely the same as ever, with Tim Cook and an array of Apple executives introducing new products in a video that made heavy use of both its Apple Park campus and special effects.

During that launch, Apple introduced a host of new products: two new versions of the iPhone, Apple Watches including a new ‘Ultra’ version aimed at explorers, and updates to the AirPods Pro.

After the event was over, and Tim Cook had thanked viewers, the video cut away to the satellite themed imagery that had been present on the invitations to the event and showed before the stream.

But after that finished, Apple then showed footage of a woman on a subway train. The video appeared to glitch and the woman disappeared.

The company gave no indication of what the video was meant to mean, or even any hint that such a tease would be coming. It also had no obvious link to the roughly 90 minutes of livestreamed video that had preceded it.

Instead, it appears to link to Apple TV+’s Severance TV show. The clip shows the actor Britt Lower, who plays the character Helly in the TV show.

The footage can be seen around 1.36.39 in the YouTube upload of the presentation, which was taken from the live stream:

Viewers watching closely noted that the same character had appeared during an earlier part of the livestream, where Apple demonstrated the noise cancellation features of the new AirPods Pro by showing them on a subway train.

But it is still not clear what the clip might indicate. Apple might be suggesting that an update is coming on Severance: with fans currently anticipating season two.

Or it could even be a hint of Apple’s widely rumoured augmented reality headset, for instance. Notably, however, the video appeared to glitch – which may not be the kind of event that Apple would look to associate with what is likely to be a major product launch for the company.

Or it could mean very little at all, especially since Apple has a habit of building red herrings into its event invitations.

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