Yellowjackets is finally coming back – here’s everything you need to know about season 2
Yellowjackets returns for season two – here’s everything you need to know (SHOWTIME)
Emmy-nominated survival series Yellowjackets, about a high school football team lost in the wilderness, is back after half time with a release date set – and season two is set to be more queer than the first.
The first series followed the past and present versions of the soccer team after their plane crashed on their way to a tournament, leaving the players to survive for nineteen months in the Canadian wilderness.
The second series of the show, which is part psychological horror and part coming-of-age drama, was immediately green lit following the critical and commercial success of the first, so put on your jackets and strap in.
Who’s in the cast?
The four queen bees are all returning for season 2 – Christina Ricci and Melanie Lynskey will return to their Emmy-nominated roles as the adult versions of Misty Quigley and Shauna Shipman. Juliette Lewis is also back as Natalie Scatorccio and Tawny Cyprus as Taissa Taylor.
For the younger version of the characters, all four will also be reprising their roles: Samantha Hanratty as Misty, Sophie Nélisse as Shauma, Sophie Thatcher as Natalie and Jasmin Savoy Brown as Taissa (Tai).
Interestingly, Lord of the Rings legend Elijah Wood is also signed on for a season long character arc for Yellowjackets this time around. He’ll be playing a citizen detective but is expected to be a counteract to the manipulative Misty.
The younger versions of characters Vanessa Palmer and Lottie Matthews have both been given ‘main cast’ status in this series too, after appearing as guest/ recurring characters in season one. Older versions of these characters have been cast as Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell respectively.
When is it coming out?
According to the official Yellowjackets Twitter, we “won’t be hungry much longer”. As ominous as it is informative, the second series was revealed to have the release date of March 24, 2023.
The creepy looking logo (along with bloody “I <3 U”s, rusty knives and wintery woods) features prominently – and viewers of season one will recognise it as the same sigil found underneath a certain dead body in a certain cabin.
What’s this season about?
In an exclusive with Entertainment Tonight, Christina Ricci said that this season is “even wilder: more crazy, more shocking, and really compelling and fun [than the first]” and that the first few scenes in the script “had the entire cast gasping”.
The original series shifted between the group’s fight for survival in 1996 and their 2021 adult counterparts who are stalked by a blackmailer claiming to know the truth of the events that occurred in the Canadian woods.
Creator Ashley Lyle confirmed in an interview with Variety in May that the season will follow the cast’s “winter storyline”, picking up precisely where season one left off. Lyle and Bart Nickerson also said they are referring to season two as: “The Winter of Their Discontent”.
So a nice easy ride for our Yellowjackets, then?
How queer is it?
Yellowjackets features several queer relationships, and while they’re probably not going to be happiest of couplings – it’s a psychological horror, after all – at least they’re there.
In the past, Tai dates Vanessa, and in the present she’s married to Simone. The marriage went over a few rough patches (see: their troubled son) in season one so let’s hope they can hold on.
Steven Krueger’s Ben Scott also returns as gay assistant soccer coach – “Yeah, that’s right. You heard me. I’m gay. Gay, gay, gay!” – but since he’s stuck in the wood with the team, his leg amputated, it’s highly unlikely he’ll see a happy ending.
Taking place partially in the 90s, the queer subtext of the show shines through its lingering glances between girls, its letterman jackets, its aggression on the sports field and its nighttime woodland encounters.
Yellowjackets season two is out on 24 March, 2023.
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