All the Buzz About 'Yellowjackets' Season 2, Including the First Trailer
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Get ready for a second sting.
Yellowjackets is coming back for more!
The gripping supernatural series, starring Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Melanie Lynskey and Tawny Cypress as adult versions of four teens who were stranded after a 1996 plane crash, was renewed by Showtime for a second season in December 2021—after only the first five episodes of Season 1 had aired, signaling just how much of a cultural phenomenon the disaster drama has quickly become.
"In terms of acclaim, in terms of buzz—no pun intended—and in terms of hard numbers, this show has just exploded," Showtime President of Entertainment Gary Levine said in a statement after the show's renewal. "For it to be embraced as quickly and as deeply as it was by both audiences and critics alike, that’s a little like catching lightning in a bottle—you can never anticipate that but boy, it’s awfully sweet when it rarely happens.”
Like a Lost-slash-Mean Girls hybrid, Yellowjackets examines what happens to the survivors of that aforementioned plane crash both in the immediate aftermath, as well as 25 years later as they struggle to process their trauma—and it gets both very mysterious and very ugly.
Now that the Season 1 finale has aired, the Yellowjackets hive is understandably ready to find out more. So here's everything to know about Yellowjackets Season 2, but beware: Spoilers ahead if you haven't yet watched all of Yellowjackets Season 1!
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Will there be a Season 2 of Yellowjackets?
Season 2 of Yellowjackets is a go! Levine told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement, "Yellowjackets has been an unadulterated sensation for Showtime. We are overwhelmed by both the acclaim and the audience response to our series, including several ‘Best of 2021’ lists, a 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and snowballing viewership... I can't wait to see the surprises they have in store for us in Season 2."
The show announced its second season on Instagram, writing, "Those girls were special. They were champions. The #Yellowjackets will return for Season 2!"
When is the Yellowjackets Season 2 release date?
Yellowjackets Season 2 premieres on Friday, March 24, 2023.
In December 2021, Levine made it sound like getting new Yellowjackets episodes was going to be a slow process, telling Deadline, "We have not heard the pitch for Season 2, the writers' room has not even come together yet, they are going to come together in January."
However, on the day of Yellowjackets' Season 1 finale, Levine was singing a decidedly more fast-tracked tune about the series' future. "We are working towards a premiere at the end of 2022,” he told Vulture. “We’d love to stay on an annual cycle. I think our audiences deserve that, and I also think that when you have a show that has this kind of a momentum, you don’t want to let it dissolve.”
Has Yellowjackets Season 2 started filming?
In January 2021, a few weeks after the Season 1 finale, fan sleuths noticed that on social media, Yellowjackets cast members were making posts and comments that suggest they'll start filming Season 2 in the summer of 2021. Ricci told Cypress in a comment, "Love you... can't wait for this summer," while Sophie Nélisse, who plays young Shauna, told Courtney Eaton (who plays Lottie), "Can't wait for more road trips together this summaaaa..."
What happens in Yellowjackets Season 2?
Yellowjackets follow a high school girls' soccer team that gets stranded after a plane crash in 1996 on the way to a tournament. The survivors find themselves cheating and lying before descending into violence and even cannibalism; in the present day, the series also delves into the aftermath on the psyches of the survivors 20 years later, all while doling out titillating bread crumbs about what actually happened out there in the wilderness. While fans are beside themselves wanting to know more, the plot for Season 2 has yet to be revealed—not even to the network.
Levine also told Deadline. "I'm sure Ashley, Bart and Jonathan [Lisco, showrunner] have some loose ideas but they hadn't fleshed out their ideas and they certainly haven't conveyed them to us. I do know that there will be some surprises in terms of the characters. There are still lots of questions about who survived, what happened out there. There will be some real surprises in terms of that and I think some characters you may not even have met yet."
Which cast members will return for Yellowjackets Season 2?
So far, the Yellowjackets Season 2 cast includes:
Christina Ricci as Misty
Melanie Lynskey as Shauna Sheridan
Juliette Lewis as Natalie
Tawny Cypress as Taissa
Elijah Wood as Walter
Ella Purnell as Jackie
Sophie Thatcher as young Natalie
Sophie Nelisse as young Shauna Sheridan
Samantha Hanratty as young Misty
Jasmin Savoy Brown as young Taissa
Lauren Ambrose as Van
Liv Hewson as young Van
Simone Kessel as Lottie
Courtney Eaton as young Lottie
Peter Gadiot as Adam
Bess Rous as Bethany
Steven Krueger as Ben Scott
Sarah Desjardins as Callie
Jane Widdop as Laura Lee
Kevin Alves as Travis
Alexa Barajas as Mari
Rukiya Bernard as Simone
Rekha Sharma as Jessica Roberts
Alex Wyndham as Kevyn
Keeya King as Akilah
Tony Winters as Vice Principal Berzonsky
How many seasons of Yellowjackets will there be?
Married Yellowjackets creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson told The Hollywood Reporterthat they initially pitched the series as a five-season show, but noted, "In success, the show will tell us." That translates to "hopefully five seasons, but we'll wait and see."
Is Yellowjackets a limited series?
At this time, Yellowjackets isn't quite a limited series, as it's been renewed for a second season. That said, because the show's creators pitched the show specifically with a five-season arc, it likely will not have the longevity of certain other shows, like, say, Grey's Anatomy.
What time is Yellowjackets on Showtime tonight?
During the course of Season 1, Yellowjackets aired on the Showtime cable network at 10 p.m. ET on Sundays. However, Showtime also offered each episode for streaming starting at 12:01 a.m. ET that same day.
Season 2 premieres for Showtime streaming and on-demand subscribers on March 24, 2023, which is a Friday. Everyone else can tune in at 10 p.m. on Sunday, March 26, 2023.
How many episodes of Yellowjackets are there?
The first season of Yellowjackets contains 10 episodes. The total episode count for Seasons 2 and beyond isn't yet known.
Is Yellowjackets a true story?
While Yellowjackets itself isn't a true story, it's heavily influenced by two actual events. You may want to turn back now if you're squeamish!
One of these is the notorious Donner Party, which by all accounts wasn't the good time it sounds like: Pioneers stranded in the snow in the winter of 1846-1847 ate the bodies of those who died (usually from hypothermia, illness, or starvation, save for two Native Americans were brutally murdered to use their flesh for food). Out of 87 members of the traveling party, 48 survived the nearly four-month ordeal.
The other is the Andes flight disaster (also called the Miracle of the Andes, depending on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist), in which Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, bound to Santiago, Chile, from Montevideo, Uruguay, crashed in the Andes in October 1972, with a rugby team onboard. The flight crashed into a mountain, immediately killing eight passengers and three crew members. Stranded for 72 days, 13 more passengers died from hypothermia (exacerbated by an avalanche) and starvation, while others turned to cannibalism, eating the corpses of their fallen, in an effort to survive. Passengers Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa trekked 38 miles into Chile with no supplies to get help, and eventually, 16 survivors were rescued. The unbelievable ordeal became the subject of a 1974 book, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors—which, in turn, became the source material of a 1993 movie starring EthanHawke.
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Is Yellowjackets like Lord of the Flies?
Yellowjackets was inspired in part by the iconic William Golding novel Lord of the Flies, though Lyle and Nickerson deliberately wanted to use girls instead of boys in their depiction of the survivors' descent into madness, tyranny and worse.
How do I watch Yellowjackets?
You can watch Yellowjackets on Showtime or streaming.
What day does Yellowjackets come on?
Season 1 episodes of Yellowjackets have aired on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET and streamed on Sundays starting at 12:01 a.m. ET. Season 2 premieres on Friday, March 24, 2023, for Showtime streaming and on-demand subscribers and airs at its normal 10 p.m. timeslot on Sunday, March 26, 2023.
How can I stream Yellowjackets?
You can stream Yellowjackets on Showtime Anytime, FuboTV, Pluto TV, Roku, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Sling TV, and YouTube. Depending on your individual plan with each streaming service, you may need to purchase episodes or add a Showtime subscription.
Streaming has proved a successful avenue for the series. "It's done extremely well in terms of streaming subscriptions. It was our second biggest series debut ever on streaming, and it's grown each week on streaming by double-digit percentages," Levine told Deadline.
Is there a Yellowjackets Season 2 trailer?
The full trailer for Yellowjackets Season 2 is finally here!
Plus, we've got a brief teaser with the Season 2 premiere dateth dropped in December 2022.
Next, here are 10 survival dramas we also recommend checking out.
