Yahoo News 'Yellowjackets' Releases First Teaser Trailer for Season 3
Spoilers for Yellowjackets season 2 below.
After Showtime’s ’90s-set survival drama Yellowjackets debuted to critical acclaim and fan adoration in its first season, the show was quickly renewed for a second, and a third renewal came even faster. In December 2022—months before season 2 even premiered—Showtime announced another round of episodes was on its way. (Star Melanie Lynskey shared the news on X (formerly Twitter), saying she’d do the show “forever” if she could.)
The speedy green light wasn’t exactly a surprise, given that series co-creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have said they picture the show ending up with as many as five seasons in total. The story follows a group of high school soccer players whose plane goes down in the wilderness, where they remain for more than a year as they descend into cannibalistic ritual.
Season 2 revealed even more of the team’s harrowing time in the woods, confirming that the team cannibalized their friend Jackie and that Shauna’s baby did not survive its traumatizing delivery. In present day, the series depicted the police on Shauna’s tail for the death of her lover, Adam Martin, and introduced the adult versions of one-time lovers Lottie and Van. By the finale, tragedy had struck in both timelines, leaving the teens without a home in the dead of winter and the core adult cast with one less member.
As we wait to see where Yellowjackets goes from here, we’ve rounded up what we know about season 3 so far.
When will Yellowjackets season 3 come out?
Season 3 will premiere on Paramount+ with Showtime on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025 with the first two episodes. (If you’re looking for spooky Valentine’s Day plans, this is it.) They will then air on Showtime on Feb. 16, 2025.
Yellowjackets’ return was delayed due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. Per Deadline, the writers’ room reopened in September 2023, pushing the premiere date farther out than initially anticipated. Filming finally began in May 2024.
Is there a trailer for Yellowjackets season 3?
On December 7, the show released its first teaser trailer, in which the current day women figure out who is out to get them when everyone who knows about what happened in the woods is either “us or dead.”
Who will be in the season 3 cast?
We can expect the main cast, including Melanie Lynskey (Shauna), Christina Ricci (Misty), and Tawny Cypress (Taissa), to return as the adult counterparts to the teens stuck in the forest. Juliette Lewis, however, probably won’t join them—given adult Natalie’s untimely death in the season 2 finale. We’ve yet to see if new additions Simone Kessell (Lottie) and Lauren Ambrose (Van) will return for season 3, but since they now seem embedded with the core group, it’s likely.
As for the teen cast, we’ll probably see Sophie Nélisse (teen Shauna), Sophie Thatcher (teen Natalie), Samantha Hanratty (teen Misty), Courtney Eaton (teen Lottie), Jasmin Savoy Brown (teen Taissa), and Liv Hewson (teen Van) again.
Hopefully other cast members like Steven Krueger (Coach Ben), Warren Kole (Jeff), Sarah Desjardins (Callie), Kevin Alves (Travis), and Elijah Wood (Walter) will also be there.
According to Variety, actor Joel McHale will guest star in season 3, though no details about his character have been released.
Hilary Swank has also joined the cast this season, Deadline reports, though details about her character also remain under wraps. There is reportedly “an option for her to become a series regular should the hit series get a fourth season,” according to the outlet. During the premiere date announcement, Showtime also confirmed Swank and McHale’s castings.
What will season 3 of Yellowjackets be about?
The season 2 finale left us with a lot of guesses for where next season could go: With the girls’ cabin burning down at the end of the episode (it seems as Coach Ben started the fire and locked his team in the house—harsh!), survival will be even harder as they look for shelter in the middle of winter. There’s also been a changing of the guard: Lottie names Natalie their new leader, upsetting Shauna in the process. How will the team stay alive in the cold amid these tensions?
Meanwhile, in the present-day timeline, the adult cast is reunited at Lottie’s retreat, engaged in a hunt. Shauna is chosen as the target, but her daughter arrives on the scene in time, armed to save her mom. When Lisa, a member of the cult, approaches with a shotgun aimed at Natalie, Misty reacts to protect Natalie but ends up accidentally killing her instead. When the police arrive, they declare that Natalie died from an overdose, but Misty is wrecked by the loss. Is there any chance Natalie could come back? And how will Misty live with the guilt?
And are Shauna and her family in the clear for good? After being investigated for Adam’s death all season, Misty’s friend Walter kills Kevyn, the lead detective on the case, and plants evidence connecting him to Adam. He also frames Kevyn’s partner, Matt.
“I think that people will be surprised by the characters’ resourcefulness in the face of their continued survival,” co-creator Bart Nickerson told Entertainment Weekly. “What we see is a continuation of some of the tensions and resentments that were building in season 2,” co-creator Ashley Lyle added. “And those really play a large part in how the girls continue to interact this season.”
To add more to the speculation, fans have been wondering if there was a secret bonus episode for season 3, and co-creator Lyle confirmed as much after the finale in 2023. However, the episode, originally intended for sometime between seasons 2 and 3, will no longer be airing yet as Lyle confirmed, “The truth is that there is a bonus episode, but we may need to wait a bit longer for it.”
In October 2024, Vanity Fair ran an interview with Lyle, with whom they announced that “answers are coming” in season 3. Lyle shared that, in the upcoming episodes, audiences will finally “learn more about what happened in the wilderness that [the characters] are so afraid of coming out. We hope it will be both satisfying and at times unexpected.” She also added that “very clear answers” are coming for “two very big questions.”
Entertainment Weekly has revealed an exclusive sneak peek at Season 3, sharing new photos teasing the thrilling twists and turns that lie ahead. The images set the stage for what promises to be a riveting new chapter. “Definitely buckle up this season,” Lyle says. “The cannibalism cat is out of the bag.”
In regards to adult Van (Lauren Ambrose) and Taissa’s (Tawny Cypress) relationship, co-creator Bart Nickerson told Entertainment Weekly, “One of the things that we have always been trying to play with, but maybe this season even more so is that, as a result of a lot of their experiences, they’ve obviously put a lot of terrible stuff away, but they’re also trying to recapture some of the best of themselves from that time, too. Some of that will be explored through that relationship.”
Yellowjacket’s co-creator Ashley Lyle also told the outlet, “there’s a little bit of a time jump in both timelines” heading into the new season.
Will there be more seasons of Yellowjackets?
Hopefully. While Showtime has only renewed Yellowjackets for a third season, co-creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have plans for the show to last five seasons, and they’re “still on track for that,” Lyle told Entertainment Weekly. She admitted “there’s always room for things,” but clarified that she and the team “don’t really see this as being more than a five-season show.”
She continued, “I think that there are shows that can go forever, but I think that when you’re telling such a deeply serialized story and it’s about these characters’ lives, you want to reach a satisfying conclusion and not just drag things out forever. This isn’t really one of those setup shows where it can go anywhere. So far, we’ve been really on track. Season 2 is largely what we always planned, but you do make a lot of discoveries along the way and so it’s always a little bit surprising.”
This story will be updated.
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