‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3: Here’s Everything We Know
[This story contains spoilers from Yellowjackets seasons one and two.]
Yellowjackets has meaty changes in store when it returns for season three.
Not only is one of the core survivors no longer with us in the present-day timeline, but the 1996-set teenagers were left stranded after the mysterious burning down of their shelter in the season two finale. Amid that one-two gut punch to end season two, a new Antler Queen was named and their group rituals are expected to remain feasty when the Emmy-nominated survival/horror/coming-of-age drama returns on… Valentine’s Day!
Created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, Yellowjackets uses dual timelines to tell the saga of a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players (the Yellowjackets) who become the unlucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. The first two seasons chronicled their descent from a team into a savage clan who eventually resorted to cannibalism in order to survive the winter, while also tracking the adults they have become, and the trauma they hold onto, 25 years later.
With Showtime telling viewers to “eat their heart out” when season three returns, The Hollywood Reporter is rounding up everything we know (so far) before heading back into the wilderness.
This story will be updated as news is revealed around season three.
Starring as the adults of Yellowjackets are plane-crash survivors Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress, Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell, along with Warren Kole and Sarah Desjardins (the family of Lynskey’s character), with Elijah Wood returning in a recurring role.
The cast of their younger counterparts is led by Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Courtney Eaton, Liv Hewson, Kevin Alves and Steven Krueger (who plays the only adult in the past timeline, as Yellowjackets coach).
Joining the cast in guest roles this season are two-time Oscar winners Hilary Swank, Joel McHale and Ashley Sutton (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story). All their roles intentionally remain a mystery.
Missing from the adult cast list this season, however, is original star Juliette Lewis. The third season will pick up shortly after the events of the shocking season two finale where Lewis’ character, Nat, was accidentally killed…
Adult Nat (Lewis) was killed when she was accidentally and lethally dosed by her friend and fellow survivor Misty (played by Ricci in the present-day timeline). The death came as a major blow to viewers, and the decision to kill off a leading character with Lewis’ star-wattage was no easy decision for the creative team. However, Nat’s death had been foreshadowed since the beginning.
“Something I know the showrunners had always thought about from the pilot was that mysterious moment when Natalie hallucinates Misty at the kegger in the woods,” director and EP Karyn Kusama, who directed both the pilot and the season two finale, told The Hollywood Reporter of the scene where Natalie has taken drugs and sees Misty, or thinks she sees Misty, staring at her across a party that she never would have been invited to. “That was always this time-defying flash-forward to the notion that Misty was always going to be kind of an angel of death for Natalie.”
Devoted Yellowjackets viewers have pored over that first-ever episode and “pit girl” flash-forward scene with the always-looming question: How will this team of teenage soccer players arrive at the ritualistic cannibalism that had been promised?
The second season gradually answered that. Following the early feast of their late star player Jackie (Ella Purnell), the end of the season showed how the starving survivors arrived at their decision to sacrifice Javi (Luciano Leroux) and crown young Nat (played by Thatcher) the “Antler Queen” in the 1996 wilderness, just as adult Nat’s untimely death in the present-day storyline was playing out.
As it turns out, the pilot also hinted that Nat would become Antler Queen, which is the show’s most tragic twist to date. “All this time, it was Natalie who was crowned the successor to Lottie (Courtney Eaton). And she’s been carrying this terrible shame of taking on that role. What has she done?” said Kusama of Nat’s ultimate fate. “The fact that was part of her guilt was such a surprise to me. Of course, she’s so much a part of it that she hates herself for it. And that was something that I felt bound the two seasons together, from pilot to this finale.”
Viewers last saw adult Nat somewhere in between life and death, taking her last breath after being confronted by her younger self (in her and Thatcher’s first scene together) on an empty airplane. “There are some people who say, I don’t think she was ready at all. And then there are some who say, she’s been really ready,” said Kusama of different interpretations. Lewis, for her part, told THR, “I thought they wrapped up the characters really beautifully, and I just love good writing, so I was happy to be a part of it.” She also left the door open for a return, perhaps in ghost form: “I don’t know anything … but I think that’s a good idea. We’ll see what happens.”
In addition to the shocking ending in the show’s present day, the past timeline of the 1996 wilderness story also left several bodies in its wake — including Shauna’s (Nelisse) stillborn baby — and left Coach’s fate up in the air as the teens eye him for setting the blaze to their home.
The first teaser trailer for season three revealed that the past will haunt hunt the survivors once again. The footage (below) included someone wearing the team’s now infamous cannibalism mask, indicating what the showrunners have warned us along: More cannibalism is coming.
“I can’t believe we didn’t eat them first,” says young Shauna (Nélisse) as the group continues to infight over who is in charge. Meanwhile, in present day, the survivors played by Lynskey, Ricci, Cypress, Ambrose and Kessell find themselves once again threatened by their past. “Someone wants to kill us,” says adult Shauna (Lynskey). “The only people who know about this are either us or dead,” says adult Van (Ambrose). The teaser even includes a ghost Jackie (Purnell) coming back to haunt adult Shauna. Guest star Swank also makes her debut at the end of the teaser: She whispers “shit” and runs away from something horrifying.
Then came the manic full and official trailer. Set to Drowning Pool’s “Bodies,” scenes include a possible reckoning for Coach (Krueger), tons of violence and horrors from the wilderness coming back to haunt (like Tai’s alter ego).
“The only way to truly be safe is to be the only one left,” says adult Shauna (Lynskey).
The third season releases with two episodes on Feb. 14, followed by a weekly drop of the rest of its 10-episode season.
The episodes first stream Fridays on Paramount+ (and on demand for subscribers with the Paramount+ with Showtime plan) before linear airings Sundays at 8 p.m.
Who’s ready?
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THR‘s Yellowjackets coverage and interviews.
