The following story contains spoilers for the entirety of Season 2 of Yellowjackets.
IT’S BEEN a fun ride through two seasons of Yellowjackets, the dual-timelined, ’90s-nostalgic, mystery thriller blast of a hit for Showtime (and Paramount+, if watching there is your flavor of choice). After a season of mystery, wondering, and teasing, the show’s sophomore year turned the heat up—and really depicted some of the cannibalism and generally deviant behavior that fans wondered about throughout Season 1.
The show’s cast has always been top notch, and Melanie Lynskey and company kept it up. Season 2 introduced an adult Lottie and Van (Simone Kessell and Lauren Ambrose) whose inclusion felt natural, and introduced a weirdo named Walter (Elijah Wood) who’s friendship and eventually romantic interest in Misty (Christina Ricci) may just have been the most fun storyline the show had going all year. And that’s just a taste of what was going on in Yellowjackets Season 2.
But anyone watching Yellowjackets—and anyone who’s watched similar shows in the past, such as Lost—knows that we’re still in the early parts of navigating this maze. To get the full picture, we’ll need to keep getting more seasons so we can see the arcs of these characters continue and get some answers to the many mysteries that have already been introduced.
Here’s what we know now about Season 3 of Yellowjackets.
Will there be a Season 3 of Yellowjackets?
There will be a Season 3 of Yellowjackets. The creators have been very transparent about a five-season plan for the show, and before Season 2 even debuted, Showtime had officially ordered Season 3. “The original plan was about five seasons, and we feel like we’re still on track for that,” co-creator Ashley Lyle said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
However, when the ongoing WGA strike began, production on Yellowjackets Season 3 halted after only a single day in the writer’s room. “I’m very excited to get back to it as soon as the WGA gets a fair deal,” Lyle wrote in a Tweet.
So if you needed another reason to hope for the Writers in the industry to get a fair deal and get back to work, there you go—Yellowjackets Season 3 is coming, but there’s some even more important stuff that needs sorting out first.
When will Season 3 of Yellowjackets come out?
Again, that’s going to be largely dependent on when the WGA strike comes to an end. Just going on timing, Season 1 of Yellowjackets aired in late 2021 into early 2022, and Season 2 aired from spring 2023 into the summer.
So the projected time would probably be a late summer 2024 start, but with the WGA strike ongoing, we’re going to be at least a couple months later in all likelihood.
What could Season 3 of Yellowjackets be about?
Our two storylines will continue at full force in Season 3 of Yellowjackets. In the present day, Shauna, now seemingly finally in the clear from any fallout from Adam’s murder, will attempt to move forward with her life with Jeff and Callie, the three of them now all criminals in one way or another—and ready to move on with a happy family life (we’ll see how long that lasts). Tai has all sorts of issues with her wife and child (who we barely saw this season), doesn’t sleep much at all, and for some reason has decided that now is the time to rekindle a romance with her old flame, Van (who, yes, is terminally ill). Oh, and she’s still an elected State Senator; we may forget that as we haven’t seen her doing any senator-ing at all. But she is!
Lottie is being briefly committed, but we will surely see her again. And then there’s that wacky couple of murderers, Misty and Walter. They’ve found each other, but Misty now has just accidentally killed Natalie, who she calls “her best friend.” Seems like there could be another moment of David Lynch-esque self searching in her future.
Meanwhile, there’s also the wilderness story to be explored; cannibalism is becoming an increasingly popular option (now that they’ve eaten two people) and Natalie was chosen as their new leader. The cabin also burned down to the ground in the middle of winter (probably Coach Ben’s doing), and, speaking of Coach Ben, he also found Javi’s secret hideaway, and, presumably, plans to stay there away from the girls who are probably thinking about eating him at the next opportune moment.
There’s a lot to figure out and explore.
Who will be in the Yellowjackets Season 3 cast?
We can expect all of our main players (sans Juliette Lewis, RIP Adult Nat) to return in Season 3. That means the main girls—Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nelisse as Shauna, Christina Ricci and Samantha Hanratty as Misty, Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown as Tai, Liv Hewson and Lauren Ambrose as Van, and Courtney Eaton and Simone Kessell—are all likely to return, in addition to the characters as of now exclusive to the past storyline (Sophie Thatcher as Young Nat, Alexa Barajas as Mari, Nia Sondoya as Akilah, Steven Krueger as Coach Ben, and Kevin Alves as Travis, among the rest) and exclusive to the present storyline (Elijah Wood as Walter, Sarah Desjardins as Callie, etc) to all return.
What we could see is whether some of those past-only characters turn out to still be alive—we could potentially see an older Coach Ben, Mari, or Akilah. And that would mean some casting fun.
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
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