Celebrate Mark/Helly Week with Exclusive New Images From Adam Scott and Britt Lower’s New Films The Saviors and Sender

The innies would approve of this one.

In honor of “Mark/Helly Week,” Pop Culture Planet has an exclusive first look at never-before-seen images of Severance stars Adam Scott and Britt Lower. The actors are trading in their Lumon badges to step into two wildly different, genre-bending films: The Saviors and Sender.

In Scott’s new dark comedy The Saviors, he and his estranged wife (Danielle Deadwyler) rent out part of their home to two siblings (Nazanin Boniadi and Theo Rossi). But they soon suspect their guests could be involved in a terrorist plot.

Director and writer Kevin Hamedani was inspired by his “life as an Iranian American and the internal conflict [he] faced as a person of color in post-9/11 America” when it came to telling the story of The Saviors. “Growing up as a first-generation Iranian American in a predominantly white suburb of Washington state, I believed I was just another typical white American kid, immersed in MTV, McDonald’s, and Hollywood movies,” he said in a statement. “But in the wake of 9/11, I was forced into an identity crisis that changed my life forever. Overnight, neighbors who once greeted me with warmth withdrew, and classmates began calling me a ‘terrorist.’ I suddenly realized I was no longer ‘one of them.’ Instead, I was ‘the other.’”

“What made this realization even more unsettling was when I internalized that same prejudice,” he continued. “That epiphany fueled my storytelling. It inspired me to make movies about my experiences as a person of color. It pushed me to explore themes of identity, fear, and perception. […] Now, with The Saviors, I’ve crafted my most personal project yet, a reflection of my lived experience as an Iranian American navigating a society riddled with paranoia, mistrust, and subconscious bias.”

Lower stars in Sender, an artful indie that follows a woman in addiction recovery who goes down a paranoid rabbit hole when she receives increasingly disturbing packages she never ordered. The cast also includes Plurbius’ Rhea Seehorn and horror icon Jamie Lee Curtis, who serves as a producer.

The film was inspired by director and writer Russell Goldman’s own experience receiving bizarre packages that led to the discovery of various e-commerce scams. “There’s a tradeoff we’ve made as a species to abandon privacy and boundaries for material convenience. We let ourselves be seen, but we can never see back,” he explained in a statement. “I wanted Sender to feel anxious, dizzying, and nightmarish, but always tethered to Julia’s story of recovery. To me, paranoia feels very similar to addiction and depression. It shrouds us until our world has changed color and we don’t even notice. It’s contagious, and it implodes our relationships. It can be incredibly difficult to watch, yet also absurd, especially when realized through mountains of boxes.”

Goldman added: “I wanted to anchor the film in Julia’s fractured headspace, where the answers aren’t nearly as important as the pursuit, but she feels she must keep moving, because that’s what addiction is. Julia’s odyssey could only have been realized by Britt Lower, who grounded our hero’s mania, no matter how far it roamed. She and I found Sender’s irregular heartbeat together, and I’m immensely grateful she took a chance on my first feature.”

“Mark/Helly Week” was created by five Brazilian fans who became friends through social media while supporting Severance. The online celebration highlights everyone’s favorite enemies to lovers through social media posts, fan art, and discussions. “What makes this week even more special is how the creators and producers actually meet the fans halfway. There’s a genuine openness there, a willingness to engage that doesn’t feel forced or distant. You can tell they care, not just about the story they’re telling, but about the people who are wholeheartedly supporting it,” shared the group. “At its core, that’s what fandom is: people, meaningful connections, and a shared love for something that truly stays with you.”

The second annual “Mark/Helly Week” runs from May 10 to 16, encouraging fan support on both X and Instagram.