Christina Ricci Teases Elijah Wood's Role in “Yellowjackets” Season 2
Immediately after season 1 of Showtime’s Yellowjackets wrapped, fans needed to know when the survival series would return for its sophomore season.
Yellowjackets, a Lord of the Flies-inspired show, depicts a New Jersey high school girls soccer team that is stranded in the Canadian wilderness after their plane — which was carrying them to a national tournament in Seattle — crashes. Desperate to survive, the surviving team members learn to hunt and forage until, eventually, they descend into cannibalism. Scenes from their time in the wilderness, which occur in 1996, contrast with those in present-day, which follows four team members — Shauna, Taissa, Natalie, and Misty — 25 years after they escaped from the woods.
Back in December 2021, Showtime’s President of Entertainment, Gary Levine, confirmed that Yellowjackets is returning for a second season. “In terms of acclaim, in terms of buzz – no pun intended — and in terms of hard numbers, this show has just exploded,” he told Deadline.
So, what will we see next from showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson? Here, we break down all the details we know so far about Yellowjackets season 2.
*Major spoilers for season one of Yellowjackets below!*
When will season 2 of Yellowjackets air?
We finally (!!) have a release date. Yellowjackets season 2 premieres on March 24 on Showtime streaming and on-demand, before debuting on-air on March 26 at 9pm ET/PT, according to Variety. The series also announced the news in a 15-second teaser on Instagram. “Carve it into memory. 3.24,” the caption read. Chills!!
In an August 2022 interview with The Wrap, showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson confirmed that production began on August 30, and that the series would likely return in early 2023.
“We’re looking into the first quarter of 2023,” Lyle told the outlet. “We are on a very similar production track in terms of time as we were last season, although, of course, we have to shoot an additional episode because we had already shot the pilot the last time. I believe that we are going to finish shooting in about February and we’ll be airing sometime shortly after that.”
Lyle added that they didn’t want to “rush” the series’ storylines, and wanted to make sure that they “got it right” as they headed into season 2 production.
Who will return in season 2?
We can anticipate seeing the series’ main characters — Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Taissa (Tawny Cypress), Natalie (Juliette Lewis), and Misty (Christina Ricci) — return, as well as their teenage counterparts (Sophie Nelisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, and Samantha Hanratty, respectively). It’s also likely that the families of the present-day Yellowjackets, such as Shauna’s husband and daughter, and Tai’s wife and son, will come back.
The “Antler Queen,” Lottie Matthews (played by Courtney Eaton), appears to carry a significant role in season 2. There are still a lot of questions that remain for the 1996 version of her character (will we ever find out what she was medicating for?), but it seems we’ll finally meet the present-day Lottie as well. In August 2022, Deadline reported that Simone Kessell joined the season 2 cast as adult Lottie. Simone also stars in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and has signed on as a series regular for Yellowjackets.
It’s probably safe to say that Jackie (Ella Purnell) will not return, given the whole freezing-to-death scenario, unless she appears in flashbacks.
And although Van (Liv Hewson) had a seriously close brush with death, it’s been confirmed that she will return as a series regular for season 2, according to The Hollywood Reporter. We’ll also meet adult Van in present-day, the outlet reports. She’ll be portrayed by actress Lauren Ambrose, who’s previously held roles in series such as Six Feet Under and Servant.
The series also announced the casting on Instagram, captioning the post, “The #Yellowjackets hive is growing. Lauren Ambrose is Adult Van 🐝.”
Will there be new faces in Yellowjackets season 2?
The Yellowjackets universe is expanding. In a March 2023 interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Christina Ricci dished that Elijah Wood will be joining season 2 of the critically acclaimed series as a potential love interest for her character, Misty.
"Most of the season, for me, was spent with Elijah in two-man scenes," she said. "I remember everything and he remembers nothing — just like every man I’ve ever known," Christina told Colbert.
She previously worked with Elijah on the 1997 film Ice Storm when they were both 15 years old. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Elijah will have a season-long guest role as Walter, a "citizen detective who links up with Misty."
On December 20, 2022, Variety announced that Jason Ritter has joined season 2 as a guest star. You might recognize the actor from series such as Hulu’s Candy, ABC’s A Million Little Things, and Frozen II. We don’t know the details of Jason’s role just yet, but fun fact — he’s married IRL to Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey, who plays adult Shauna.
What about new music?
Seems so! On March 6, Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine (!!) teased their involvement in Yellowjackets season 2. In a TikTok, Florence pulls a Yellowjackets varsity bomber jacket from a rack, while a cover of No Doubt’s “Just A Girl” plays in the background. “So happy I got picked for the team this year 🩸 @yellowjackets,” the singer-songwriter wrote in the caption. OK, we need the full cut of this cover ASAP. 🐝
Is there a trailer for Yellowjackets season 2?
Sure is! Showtime dropped the official season 2 trailer on March 9, and it’s dark. Florence + the Machine covers an ominous rendition of No Doubt’s “Just A Girl,” as we return to the girls in the depths of the Canadian wilderness, struggling to survive in the dead of winter.
We fast-forward to present day, where adult Natalie reveals that there “was some darkness” out there in the woods... and it’s followed them home. Adult Shauna, Misty, Van, and Tai return, and we’re introduced to adult Van and Lottie, too. Misty is convinced that one of the women is hiding something, while the police knock on Shauna’s front door (perhaps to question her about the season 1 murder of Adam...) The clip ends with the revelation that things are going to get “a lot worse.”
On January 13, Showtime released the first teaser trailer for Yellowjackets season 2, and it’s packed with more mysteries as the series flips back and forth from the 1996 plane crash to the present. We follow Nat as she goes through a guided hypnosis, which takes her back to the months she was stranded in the wilderness with her teammates. Meanwhile, Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood makes his debut as a citizen detective who works alongside Misty.
What will Yellowjackets season 2 be about?
In December 2021, network president Gary Levine told Deadline that there were “some surprises in store in terms of the characters” for season 2. “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,” he continued.
The dual storyline is sure to continue, considering that we know the team is stranded in the wilderness for 19 months, and we’ve seemingly only seen them through the summer, fall, and early winter of 1996.
The second season's official logline is as follows:
Two months have passed since Shauna gave Jackie the cold shoulder— to disastrous results. In the face of their deepening hunger and fear, the tension among our Yellowjackets has only grown worse. The harsh conditions of winter are intensifying by the day, and the psyches of our survivors are deteriorating just as fast. Threatened by the darkness of the wilderness — and the haunting memories of it in the present — our former state champs will be forced to make impossible decisions. As they confront the horrible truth of what survival entails, the real nightmare for each of them will be to figure out who they are — and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to stay alive.
We hopefully will learn more about the details surrounding Travis’ death, and why present-day Natalie was kidnapped. As Levine referenced, there are also still SO many questions on how many survivors there actually are — we only learned that Lottie is still alive in the season 1 finale. Could some of the others still be out there? Where is Travis’ brother, Javi? What will happen to Shauna’s baby? Will we find out who the barefoot girl running to her death was in the very first episode?!
So many questions! But Bart Nickerson, co-creator of the series, told The Hollywood Reporter that Yellowjackets was originally presented “as a five-season idea.” With presumably ten episodes per season, there are still many plot points to explore.
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