Spoilers for Yellowjackets season 2 below.
Yellowjackets was quickly renewed for its second season, and the third season renewal came been even faster. In December 2022, months before season 2 premiered, Showtime gave the green light for more episodes. Star Melanie Lynskey shared the news on Twitter, saying she'd do the show “forever” if she could.
The renewal makes sense, because co-creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have said they picture the show having as many as five seasons. The story follows a group of incredibly successful high school soccer players whose plane goes down in the wilderness. From the opening episode, we know they're stuck there for over a year and the gang eventually descends into cannibalistic ritual.
Season 2 revealed even more of the team's harrowing time in the wilderness, confirming that they cannibalized their teammate Jackie and that Shauna's baby did not survive the delivery. In present day, it showed the police on Shauna's tail for the death of her lover, Adam Martin, and introduced adult versions of Lottie and Van. By the end, tragedy strikes in both timelines, leaving the teens without a home in the dead of winter and leaving 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.
Who will be in the season 3 cast?
We can probably 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, likely won't joint them after adult Natalie is killed 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 given 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.
What will season 3 of Yellowjackets be about?
(Warning: More spoilers ahead!) 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 looks like Coach Ben started the fire and locked them in the house), 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, which upsets Shauna. How will the team stay alive in the cold and amid these tensions?
Meanwhile in present day, the adult cast is reunited at Lottie's retreat, engaged in a hunt like they used to when they were in the wilderness. 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, though? 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 for Kevyn's murder.
To add more to the speculation, fans have been wondering if there was a secret bonus episode for season three, and co-creator Ashley Lyle confirmed as much after the finale.
“There will be a bonus episode between seasons, but I love you guys and I don’t want y’all to lose sleep thinking it’s tonight,” she wrote, telling people they should go to bed instead of waiting up for it to be released. She added, “Closer to S3. I’m not being coy, there’s a strike and things are complicated!”
Anything that happens in that episode could totally change the trajectory of the show.
“With Yellowjackets runaway success in Season 1 and the pent-up anticipation for Season 2, we wanted to maximize the momentum by fast tracking Season 3 now,” said Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime and Paramount Media Networks, in a statement to Variety in December 2022. “The show’s ambition is only exceeded by its execution, and I thank the incredible creative team behind it, including Ashley, Bart, Jonathan, eOne and the Showtime team, for turning this into such a success.”
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.”
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now.
