The Survival Drama With Bite: ‘Yellowjackets’ Stars Set the Table for Tasty Season 2
Preview
TV’s buzziest show is back, and this time, there’s even more sting to go around. The horror-tinged psychological thriller follows members of the Yellowjackets, a women’s high school soccer team, in two timelines: 1996, stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash, and 2021, trying to carry on.
Good luck with that. Executive producer Jonathan Lisco says Yellowjackets Season 2 will be, on a scale of 1 to 10, “Nine and a half times darker. [In the present,] they cope with unresolved secrets and questions and continue to be crushed by them. [In the past,] they get more hungry, desperate, fearful, and wonder whether they’re losing their minds.”
While Season 2 will undoubtedly set up even more mysteries, one question stands at the forefront: whether or not we’ll get intel on exactly what — or rather who — the teen girls were chowing down on in the nightmarish scenes in the series premiere.
“We want to live up to expectations and give [fans] the wildness, gruesomeness, and craziness they’re seeking,” says Sophie Nélisse, who plays the teen version of smart kid Shauna (Melanie Lynskey portrays the character as an adult).
Showtime
Shauna is certainly no stranger to any of those things; the first season brought trauma in both of her timelines. In 1996, the pregnant teen was devastated after her bestie, alpha Jackie (Ella Purnell), froze to death. In 2021, the wife and mom murdered her lover, thinking he was blackmailing her about the past, and her teammates helped dispose of the body.
In reality, it was hubby Jeff who was the extortionist and now, “Shauna wants to be a great mom and redeem herself by doing good,” reveals Lisco. “It won’t go according to plan.”
Maybe that’s because there’s a chance that everything the team swore to keep hidden will come out: former teammate Taissa (Tawny Cypress in the present day) has won her state senate election and Lisco teases that her political ambitions could threaten to derail the survivors’ pact of secrecy.
Then there’s Taissa’s high school girlfriend Van (teen Liv Hewson), played as an adult by new series regular Lauren Ambrose.
Kailey Schwerman/Showtime
“Van appears to be pretty together, maybe even mentally healthy,” Ambrose says. “But it’s revealed what kind of mess she’s in.”
Ambrose joins new cast member Simone Kessell, who plays present-day Lottie and whose presence adds another layer of mystery to the twisty drama. (It’s been theorized she was the person behind the Season 1 cliffhanger, which involved the kidnapping of adult Yellowjacket Natalie, played by Juliette Lewis.)
Trying to find Natalie is nurse/former equipment manager Misty (Christina Ricci), working alongside another newbie: fellow citizen detective Walter (Elijah Wood).
“He has information and access to help her search, so she tolerates him,” Ricci says of their relationship.
While Yellowjackets is about the more hideous side of human survival, it’s also about redemption and adaptability.
“We get to play scenes that really bring us out of our comfort zone and scenes that we haven’t even sometimes seen on TV,” says Nélisse. And even if some of those scenes are more on the macabre level, Lisco promises they aren’t there just to provide shock value.
Kailey Schwerman/Showtime
“Will we render the difficulty of survival in an objectively realistic way? Sure,” says the EP. “But we’re certainly not going to be salacious or sensational about it.”
One thing the show will be a little extra about?
“The very powerful side to girls,” Nélisse says. “Sometimes [the Yellowjackets] have to [square off] against each other, but it also shows that by being unified and supporting one another, you can achieve crazy things.”
Crazy things like…eating another team member? We’re abuzz with anticipation.
Yellowjackets, Season 2 Premiere, Friday, March 24, On Demand, Sunday March 26, 9/8c, Showtime
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