If you’re one of the many (many) fans of the Showtime series Yellowjackets, the wait for any new updates about the series probably feels torturously slow. Season 1 premiered in November 2021 and was phenomenal – thanks in no small part to an ensemble cast including Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress, and Melanie Lynskey. And while the freshman season answered some of viewers’ questions, it also ended with a lot of new loose ends and even more mysteries to be solved. So, inquiring minds must know: Is Yellowjackets Season 2 on the way? How soon can fans expect to revisit the remote northern wilderness?
Read on to see everything we know so far about the addictive show’s second season, including release date, the cast, possible plot points, and – let’s just be real; it’s what everyone is thinking – whether or not the girls ate each other before rescue arrived.
What is Yellowjackets about?
Warning: Spoilers about the plot of the series to follow.
To recap a bit, the series centers on the adult versions of a group of high school soccer players whose plane crashes on the way to a big tournament. The girls struggle to get along as they fight to survive, but as we see in flash-forwards, they do eventually get rescued. Still, the overall experience haunts them for the rest of their lives – and now they are finally reckoning with what really happened in those woods.
Between the chilling images of “the antler queen” and a looming sense that something really, really bad happened among the girls, Yellowjackets Season 1 kept viewers coming back every week.
Now, it seems like it’s taking forever for Season 2 and, hopefully, getting to the bottom of this shared trauma. One thing fans do know is that Jackie, played by Ella Purnell, is genuinely dead after being discovered by Shauna sleeping in the snow one morning. Season 1 also confirmed that it was Lottie Matthews who drained Travis’ bank account and might be associated with his death.
Does Yellowjackets Season 2 have a release date?
In December 2021, Showtime announced that Yellowjackets would, in fact, be getting a second season, so fans can rest assured that they’ll get to continue on with the girls’ stories. Still, it could be a while before the season actually premieres. Showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson told Variety that the series will begin filming in late summer 2022 after the writers finalize the storyline. They added that although they will be filming in summer, the season will still take place in winter.
Lyle told the outlet, “We are definitely revisiting the winter storyline. We’ve been calling Season 2, ‘The Winter of Their Discontent,'” which is a reference to John Steinbeck’s novel of the same name and a line from Shakespeare’s Richard III. So don’t expect any less chill from season 2.
Gary Levine, a Showtime exec, told Vulture that they hope it returns by late 2022. He said, “We’d love to stay on an annual cycle. I think our audiences deserve that, and I also think that when you have a show that has this kind of a momentum, you “Do not want to let it dissolve.” Although the show originally premiered in November, considering the writing and filming schedule, it seems like December 2022 is more likely.
Who’s in the cast?
Christina Ricci (Misty), Juliette Lewis (Natalie), Tawny Cypress (Taissa), and Melanie Lynskey (Shauna) are all slated to return for Season 2 and reprise their roles as the adult survivors of the plane crash. Sammi Hanratty, Sophie Thatcher, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Sophie Nélisse should also return as the teen versions of Misty, Natalie, Taissa, and Shauna, respectively.
Although teenage Jackie is dead, the showrunners have also teased that Purnell might make an appearance in flashbacks. Also, the second season should focus on more team members who got rescued, which means they have to cast the adult counterparts of the teen characters we already know. All of the questions about Lottie, played by Courtney Eaton as the teen version, in the present day will have to be addressed, so they will definitely cast an adult version. Lyle told Entertainment Weekly“We will be seeing adult Lottie in season 2. Buckle up!”
Other characters are also possibly getting cast as adults, like Van, played by Liv Hewson in the past timeline. Lynskey told Entertainment Tonight that there would also be others, saying, “I know new people are coming in. Older versions of a couple of the younger cast they’re trying to cast right now.” But just like the official release date, no official new casting announcements have been made.
Are there any Season 2 plot spoilers yet?
According to the showrunners, Yellowjackets Season 2 should pick up where things left off. At this point, the teens have been stranded in the Canadian Rockies for several months in the past timeline, and things are only going to get strangers now that Jackie is dead and the Antler Queen has been revealed. In the present timeline, the women still have to figure out what happened to Travis and whether Lottie is running some sort of cult based on their experiences in the wilderness.
Lyle also teased that Season 2 will delve into the cannibalism plotline. In an interview with Playlist, she said, “I guess we can tease for Season 2 – you know, there are other survivors out there, and that will come into play. I also think that, much like we were discussing the supernatural before, the idea of belief and what people do and don’t believe in – that will be very central thematically to the second season. And I think that we’re well aware that we’ve maybe tried the viewership’s patience a little bit with our tease of cannibalism in episode one, and I’d like to assure everyone that we will not be dragging that out forever, so get ready. “
Let’s just hope it’s not Shauna’s baby.