'Yellowjackets' Has Already Been Renewed for a Third Season Before Its Second Season Even Airs

Overview

With its first season, Yellowjackets instantly became one of 2021's best new series. Its second season is due in March, which already makes it one of the most-anticipated shows of 2023. Expect that excitement to continue in 2024 or beyond as well, with the hit thriller about the fallout from plane crash just locked in for a third season.

While it couldn't be a more perfect theme tune to play over the show's opening credits, Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker's 90s-esque track 'No Return' doesn't apply to Yellowjackets' fate on our screens, clearly. US cable network Showtime has already renewed the series ahead of its season-two premiere — three months ahead, in fact, with the show's second batch of episodes due late March (streaming from Friday, March 24, 2023 via Paramount+ in Australia and Neon in New Zealand).

If you're new to Yellowjackets, it's filled with eeriness, chills, 90s threads and survival skills, as a series about a New Jersey high school's girls soccer team after they crash in the forest and possibly turn to cannibalism should be. The show deepens its mysteries across two timelines: that tragedy and its immediate aftermath, and the ripples still being felt 25 years later. Not everyone seen in the former makes it to the latter, as the first season made plain.

In their high-school prime, Shauna (Don't Look Up's Melanie Lynskey as an adult, and also The Kid Detective's Sophie Nélisse as a teenager), Natalie (Welcome to Chippendales' Juliette Lewis, plus The Book of Boba Fett's Sophie Thatcher) and Taissa (Billions' Tawny Cypress, and also Scream's Jasmin Savoy Brown) were key players on the titular high-achieving squad, while Misty (Wednesday's Christina Ricci, as well as Shameless' Samantha Hanratty) was the squad's frequently bullied student manager. Then, en route to a big match in Seattle on a private plane in 1996, they entered Lost territory.

That accident saw everyone who walked away from the accident stranded in the wilderness — and those who then made it through that ordeal stuck out there for 19 months, living their worst Alive-meets-Lord of the Flies lives.

Season two will pick up after plenty of chaos in both timeframes, and with new faces among the cast. Introducing more of the team in their adult guise is very much on the agenda, including Simone Kessell (Muru) playing the older Lottie and Lauren Ambrose (Servant) as the older Van. In their younger years, both characters are played by Australian actors, with Courtney Eaton (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Lottie and and Liv Hewson (Santa Clarita Diet) as Van.

Also joining the show: Elijah Wood, who is no stranger to leafy surroundings thanks to his time in the Lord of the Rings franchise. He'll play Walter, a citizen detective who is set to challenge Misty — the adult version, presumably.

It's obviously too early for a sneak peek at season three, but you can check out Yellowjackets' first teaser for season two below:

Season three of Yellowjackets doesn't yet have a release date. Season two will start streaming from Friday, March 24, 2023 via Paramount+ in Australia and Neon in New Zealand. Read our review of season one.