The ten episode first season of the Showtime series Yellowjackets will be getting a physical media release in June, and then sometime in late summer season 2 will be going into production. Even though filming will begin in summer, showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have confirmed to Variety that winter will prominent in the second season of the series.
As Variety explains,
“Yellowjackets” ended its chilling first season by further fueling the mystery in the 1996 winter flashback sequence from the pilot, which featured the Antler Queen a.k.a. Lottie Matthews (Courtney Eaton) and her ilk killing and eating one of the survivors. The finale closed with Lottie ritualistically placing a bear’s bloody heart in a tree-stump altar, flanked by Misty (Samantha Hanratty) and Van (Liv Hewson), foreshadowing what’s to come when the stranded teammates finally reach that stage from the premiere.
Lyle assured Variety,
We are definitely re-visiting the winter storyline. We’ve been calling season 2 The Winter of Their Discontent.”
Nickerson added that he, Lyle, and their fellow showrunner Jonathan Lisco are just getting started working on the scripts for season 2 episodes with their writing staff. Lyle admitted that they’ll have to be “very creative on a production front” to make the season as wintery as they’re envisioning. “But we’re starting those production conversations and we have some really amazing and creative people on our team. So this will be movie magic at play.”
Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis star in Yellowjackets, which is is described as “equal parts survival epic, horror story, and coming-of-age drama.” The story centers on
a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players who become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the Ontario wilderness. The series will chronicle their descent from a complicated but thriving team to warring, cannibalistic clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later, proving that the past is never really past and what began out in the wilderness is far from over.
Created, written, executive produced by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson (who serve as showrunners alongside executive producer Jonathan Lisco), the series also stars Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Ella Purnell, Sammi Hanratty, Sophie Thatcher, Sophie Nelisse, Steven Krueger, Amy Okuda, and Jasmin Savoy Brown.
Ricci and Hanratty play the present and teenage versions of Misty, “the Yellowjackets’ equipment manager. Eager to please and easy to overlook, Misty’s abundance of team spirit belies a hidden dark side.” Lewis plays the present day version of a character named Natalie, with Sophie Thatcher playing the teenage Natalie. “Despite her natural talent, Natalie’s punk rock spirit and habit of finding trouble make her the unlikeliest member of the team. As an adult, Natalie struggles to quiet the demons that still haunt her from her time in the wilderness.” Purnell’s character is Jackie, “the Yellowjackets’ magnetically charismatic, effortlessly popular, occasionally entitled team captain.” Lynskey and Nelisse are the present and teen versions of a character named Shauna. “25 years later, Shauna is on a mission to reclaim her agency — her life — while doing everything in her power to keep her darkest secrets safe.” Krueger plays Ben Scott, “the assistant coach and the object of many an unrequited crush.” Okuda is Cat Wheeler, “a history teacher recruited to bolster the female presence on the coaching staff, despite knowing literally nothing about soccer.” Cypress and Brown are both playing the character Taissa, “the star player on the Yellowjackets squad; now, 25 years later, her political ambitions threaten to derail the survivors’ pact of secrecy.”
The pilot episode of Yellowjackets was directed by Karyn Kusama, whose credits include Girlfight, Aeon Flux, Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation, Destroyer (the one with Nicole Kidman), and a segment of the horror anthology XX.
Showtime Networks president of entertainment Gary Levine has said that he’s hoping to get Yellowjackets season 2 on the air by the end of 2022.