Good news, Yellowjackets fans: Season 3 finally has a release date and now a trailer (see above). The brutal winter is finally over in the wilderness timeline, but the teens are more unhinged than ever. The past is coming back to “hunt” the adult survivors as some mystery force is clearly out to kill them all. Viewers also get the first look at Hilary Swank‘s new character in the trailer’s final moments, and she’s covered in blood and running from an unseen threat on an empty road. The trailer was debuted at CCXP 2024 on Saturday, December 7.
After months of sharing photos from the wilderness set, the Showtime drama is almost ready to reveal what it’s been cooking up for fans. The premiere date announcement on November 19 also confirmed that Juliette Lewis will not be back in Season 3 following her bombshell Season 2 ending. This perhaps isn’t surprising, given her character’s end, but the November 19 announcement is still the first confirmation from the series that Lewis is not in the Season 3 cast.
Season 2 ended with the wilderness cabin burning down and the shocking, heartbreaking death of one of the adult survivors in the present-day timeline. That cliffhanger and more will need to be addressed upon the Emmy-nominated series’ return this February.
Here are all the latest updates on Yellowjackets Season 3, including Swank’s casting as a recurring guest star, which was announced on Friday, September 27. She joins previously announced guest star Joel McHale.
When does Yellowjackets Season 3 come out?
Showtime
Showtime announced on Tuesday, November 19 that Yellowjackets Season 3 will premiere with two episodes on Friday, February 14 on the Paramount+ streaming service. The episodes will only be available to Paramount+ With Showtime (aka premium) subscribers. The first episode of Yellowjackets Season 3 will then debut on the Paramount+ With Showtime TV channel (formerly just called Showtime) on Sunday, February 16, presumably at 9/8c like previous seasons.
Is Yellowjackets Season 3 filming?
After being delayed by the 2023 Hollywood strikes, Yellowjackets kicked off Season 3 filming in May. The show’s Instagram page shared various photos from the wilderness set in Vancouver, Canada, including one of Season 3 Episode 1’s script hanging on a clothesline between a T-shirt and a flannel. The episode title isn’t revealed on the script’s front page, but it does say that it’s written by the Yellowjackets showrunners, Jonathan Lisco, Ashley Lyle, and Bart Nickerson, and directed by Nickerson. The episode will mark Nickerson’s directorial debut, and Season 3 Episode 3 will be Lisco’s.
“We know you’re starving… #Yellowjackets Season 3 is officially in production,” the cheeky caption says.
Colin Bentley / SHOWTIME
Who is in the Yellowjackets Season 3 cast? Is Juliette Lewis coming back?
The November 19 announcement shared the official Season 3 cast list, in which Lewis is not listed. But Sophie Thatcher, who plays young Natalie, will be back.
Season 3 stars Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress, Lauren Ambrose, Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Courtney Eaton, Liv Hewson, Steven Krueger, Warren Kole, Kevin Alves, Sarah Desjardins, and Simone Kessell, with Elijah Wood returning in a recurring role.
Swank and McHale will appear as a guest star in Season 3. Details about his character have not yet been revealed, nor have details about Swank’s character. According to Deadline, there’s a possibility for Swank to become a series regular if Yellowjackets gets renewed for Season 4. Her character will also reportedly make its debut later in Season 3.
What happens in Yellowjackets Season 3?
Yellowjackets follows a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players that survive a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. There seem to be mystical forces at work in the woods, driving them all to desperate lengths to stay alive and sane. The biggest threat they face is hunger — and what they’re willing to do to each other to satiate their appetites.
We’ve known since Season 1 that the girls remained stranded in the woods for 19 months. The first season also constantly teased the night the team ate their team captain, Jackie (Fallout‘s Ella Purnell), but we didn’t learn the circumstances that brought that about until Season 2. Rather than the team or one of its members killing Jackie like some viewers theorized, Jackie died alone by freezing to death in a snowstorm. They were going to burn her body for her funeral, but then a pile of snow fell from a tree and onto her pyre.
Unbeknownst to the team, the fire didn’t go out completely, resulting in Jackie being slow-cooked. The ravenously hungry girls couldn’t help but feast. Their coach, Ben (Krueger), was horrified and distanced himself from the girls after that, fearing he could be next. Because he wasn’t present when the cabin was engulfed in flames, Ben is looking quite guilty.
In the future timeline, Shauna (Lynskey), Natalie (Lewis), Misty (Ricci), Taissa (Cypress), and Van (Ambrose) were at Lottie’s (Kessell) cultish compound when things took a deadly turn. A night of reconnecting with each other turned into a night of recreating their wilderness hunts, resulting in Misty accidentally killing Natalie with a deadly injection of a poisonous substance. That shocking twist makes young Natalie’s (Thatcher) time in the woods even more important. Misty’s love interest, Walter (Wood), was there to save the day and cover for Misty.
Suffice it to say that Season 3 has some explaining to do. The series is on track to create a total of five seasons. While there’s no logline for Season 3 just yet, Krueger said he expects it to be the most violent yet.
“I think Season 3 will probably be the wildest, bloodiest season that we have,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “Granted, we don’t know anything to be fair,” Krueger said. “Granted, we don’t know anything to be fair. I’m just guessing that’s where it’s going.”
Hanratty (teen Misty) thinks Season 3 will be defined by grief. “I think that with that grief, it’s gonna bring out a lot of interesting levels of the other characters and I’m really excited to see that. Sophie Thatcher (teen Natalie) is gonna keep Natalie’s legacy living,” she told ET, adding that the upcoming season could be “the meltdown.”
“I’m gonna put it out there that Season 1 is chaotic and messy, Season 2 is like still cold and dark and it was winter, and then this one was the meltdown,” Hanratty said. “You’re going to see the melting of like what these people are and really get to see like the broness of these girls.”
Kailey Schwerman / SHOWTIME
Is the Yellowjackets bonus episode still coming?
There is reportedly a Yellowjackets bonus episode coming before Season 3 premieres. Lyle said in June during last year’s strikes that the episode was still incoming, but that it wasn’t premiering on June 1 like a fan theorized. The Yellowjackets bonus episode is still believed to be on the way. The episode will reportedly bridge Seasons 2 and 3 together.
Stay tuned here as we continue to report the latest updates on Yellowjackets Season 3!
Yellowjackets, Season 3 Streaming Premiere, Episodes 1 & 2, Friday, February 14, Paramount+
Yellowjackets, Season 3 Linear Premiere, Sunday, February 16, Showtime
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