Throughout the course of the first season of Yellowjackets, the horror-survival series on Showtime about a high school girls’ soccer team that gets trapped in the Canadian wilderness, more issues were brought up than could ever be resolved in the season’s conclusion. A second season of the program is on its way, which is excellent news for the die-hard fans of the show who critique and debate hypotheses each week. Here’s what we are excited for about the Yellowjackets sophomore run.
Premiere Date and Season 3 Renewal Announced
A third season of the Showtime series, which follows the titular high school women’s soccer team as they try to survive in the Canadian wilderness after a deadly plane crash, has been renewed for production prior to the premiere of the second season, the network announced. Production in Vancouver is already underway, of which season two will begin streaming on March 24, 2023.
Questions Will Be Answered
Co-showrunner Ashley Lyle promises that viewers won’t have to wait long for closure. According to her interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the question of “Who is blackmailing the Yellowjackets,” will be answered in season two. Lyle goes on to discuss how crucial it is to provide answers to the plot issues that are asked and investigate them further so as not to leave any mysteries unsolved.
Questions like “What does it all mean, and what exactly is the aim of our lives on this planet?” will be explored according to the showrunner. “We won’t be able to provide you [all] answers that are comprehensive to such inquiries. On the other hand, we don’t want to leave anybody hanging in terms of the storyline.”
It’s Going To Get Wild!
We know the second season is sure to be bonkers. According to Melanie Lynskey, she told E! News in September 2022, “All I can say is that episode two is insane.”
Family Affair
In the highly anticipated second season, Melanie Lynskey’s husband Jason Ritter will also make a guest-spot appearance alongside her. It has come to light that Lynskey was the one who was ultimately responsible for securing the part of Deputy Denny Reese for Ritter in the limited series Candy, which stars Jessica Biel in the character of the alleged axe murderer Candy Montgomery.
While facts of who Ritter will be playing in Yellowjackets have been kept under wraps, it is safe to assume that he won’t be the only new kid in town. He’ll join newcomers Elijah Wood, Lauren Ambrose, and Simone Kessell on the show this season.
Lots More Young Lottie
The unexplained actions of young Lottie will also play a significant part in the second season. In season two of Yellowjackets, Courtney Eaton, who portrayed Lottie in season one, has been elevated to series regular. At the conclusion of the first season, the teen Lottie makes a sacrifice of a bear heart and exhales in French, “let the dark set us free.” It is clear that Lottie connected with something energetically more significant than herself as she spoke those frightening words.
There is a lot of evidence to indicate that something that began in the wilderness is still alive twenty-five years later, still simmering on the back burner. It’s going to blow up now for a variety of reasons, all of which will be revealed in the second season. As the events unfold in a more terrifying manner, we can’t wait to watch how the timelines of young Lottie and adult Lottie play off one another.
Bring on Coach Ben!
Steven Krueger will reprise his role as Coach Ben. Krueger told TV Insider that season two is a “whole new ballgame” and emphasized the events that are set to unfold within the winter timeline will be insane. By the end of season one, the immobilized Coach Ben and Misty’s relationship filled with high tension. It’ll be exciting to see what that tension will transition into in season two.
More Winter Storyline
The network revealed that they plan to revisit “the winter storyline” the stranded Yellowjackets soccer team was facing in Canada when season 1 concluded. Showrunners call the season “The Winter of Their Discontent”. Yellowjackets concluded its eerie first season by adding more layers of intrigue to the mystery that had been introduced in the 1996 winter flashback sequence from the pilot. In this sequence, the Antler Queen, also known as Lottie Matthews (played by Courtney Eaton), and her followers killed and consumed one of the survivors.
Towards the end of the episode, Lottie performed a rite in which she placed a bear’s bloodied heart in an altar made out of a tree stump, and she was flanked by Misty (Samantha Hanratty) and Van (Liv Hewson). Co-showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson told Variety that they need to be “quite imaginative on a production level” in order to make the season seem as wintry as they are imagining it to be. If season one’s finale is any indication that the premiere of season two will be just as bombastic and horrifying, bring on the snow!
Van’s Alive!
Six Feet Under alum Lauren Ambrose will portray the grown-up version of Vanessa Palmer (AKA Van) in the show’s second season. Van’s existence, as well as the question of whether or not she was still alive, remained a mystery throughout the first season of the show, which focused on the lives of her former peers Shauna, Taissa, Nat, and Misty in the present day. In a set of photographs posted by Showtime, Ambrose could be seen with face scars.
These scars are likely a gruesome memory of the moment when Van was attacked by a pack of wolves in the first season. We are quite curious to learn what she has been up to in the time since then. Liv Hewson, who portrays the younger version of Van in season one, has been upped to a series regular for the second season, so there will be much in store for young Van as well.
Brace Yourself For Adult Lottie
Simone Kessell, best known for her role as Breha Organa in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+, has been cast as the adult Lottie, who may be a full-fledged cult leader. After the finale of season one, it was revealed that Lottie was alive and behind Travis’ death and Nat’s kidnapping.
Elijah Wood Is The Law!
Elijah Wood joins the cast in a season-long guest arc. According to a network announcement, Wood will portray Walter, a citizen investigator for The Bureau of Citizen Detectives “who will push Misty (Christina Ricci) in ways she never expected.” Elijah and Christina, who previously appeared in the film The Ice Storm together, will be reuniting for the role of Yellowjackets.
Throughout the first season, the older version of Misty found herself in a variety of precarious situations, including helping Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) get rid of a body, holding a woman captive in her basement and later poisoning her cigarettes, and withholding medication from an elderly patient who later suffered a stroke and died. Misty characterized herself as a member of the citizen detective community; hence, Walter will have a role in this story.
