Yellowjackets Season 2: Release Date, Cast, And More For The Return Of Showtime's Series

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Showtime's "Yellowjackets" was one of the most fascinating new shows to debut in 2021. The series centers on the members of a Seattle high school girls' soccer team (i.e. the Yellowjackets) whose plane crashes in the Canadian wild on their way to a national tournament in 1996. 25 years later, only a few of the players are still alive, having somehow managed to survive in the woods for 19 months before being rescued. The show blends horror — some of which may be supernatural in nature, though that's yet to be confirmed — with high school coming-of-age drama and mystery box storytelling as it slowly reveals the truth about what really went down in the wilderness. Meanwhile, in the series' present-day, the remaining Yellowjackets are forced to deal with all-new challenges, both from outside and within themselves.

With plenty of intriguing unsolved mysteries and some exciting new cast additions, season 2 is shaping up to be part of the first wave of must-watch TV events in 2023. Get ready for a fresh set of moody '90s pop hits, shocking twists, and (potentially) cannibalistic acts: It's time for the "Yellowjackets" hive to reassemble.

Filming on "Yellowjackets" season 2 began in August 2022 with the goal of making a first-quarter premiere date in 2023. Showtime has since released a short teaser confirming the second season will land on its streaming platform and on-demand channel for subscribers on March 24, 2023, before airing on the main Showtime channel two days later at 9 p.m. EST. That means the series will return about two months after HBO unveils its much-hyped small-screen adaptation of Naughty Dog's survival horror/thriller video game property, "The Last of Us," and three weeks after "The Mandalorian" season 3 premieres on Disney+. 

Word of mouth online (or should I say ... buzz? No, I will not be retiring that joke anytime soon.) played an essential role in getting more eyes on "Yellowjackets" in its freshman season, but the release date for season 2 puts it in a good position to continue growing the show's audience. That's assuming, of course, that it doesn't suffer a major dip in quality, knock on wood.

The season 1 finale of "Yellowjackets" featured some major setups for season 2, including the reveal of yet another surviving Yellowjacket in the show's present-day. However, it's best not to expect too many answers to the series' biggest questions just yet. The show's creatives are said to have already mapped out five seasons in their heads, so one presumes they will continue to take their time unraveling the truth about what exactly went down during those distressing 19 months in the distant northern wilderness.

All this talk of mysteries aside, the big hope is "Yellowjackets" season 2 will dig even deeper into the themes of trauma from season 1 and how it impacts the lives of the adult Yellowjackets. One of the many great things about season 1 was that the survivors were shaped by their shared experience in very different ways. As such, each of them had their own approach to processing their emotions — some far healthier than others. Speaking at the 2022 ATX Television Festival, executive producer Drew Comins indicated that would remain the case in season 2:

"They were sort of [thrown] into the fire together, so I hope that [we lean into that] question of 'Are the women possessed by the darkness or do the women possess darkness?'"

"Yellowjackets" creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson will continue to oversee the series with their co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco in season 2. Also back is most of the main cast from season 1, including Melanie Lynskey (adult Shauna), Tawny Cypress (adult Taissa), Juliette Lewis (adult Natalie), and Christina Ricci (adult Misty), along with Sophie Nélisse (teenage Shauna), Jasmin Savoy Brown (teenage Taissa), Sophie Thatcher (teenage Natalie), and Sammi Hanratty (teenage Misty).

New cast additions in season 2 include Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell as the adult versions of Van and Lottie, respectively, with Liv Hewson and Courtney Eaton once again playing the characters as high schoolers in the show's flashbacks. While it remains to be seen what the grown-up Van has been up to the past 20-plus years, season 1 revealed Lottie has become some type of cult leader in 2021 after ascending to a similar position among her fellow Yellowjackets back in 1996. And on a lighter note, Elijah Wood will also co-star in season 2 as Walter, one of Misty's fellow "citizen detectives" and a character who may bring a note of levity to the plot.

Or he might be the target of Misty's ire (never a good thing). Either way, Walter's definitely going to have his hands full dealing with the Yellowjackets, which is rough news for him but great news for those of us watching the chaos unfold from the comfort of our homes.