‘Yellowjackets’ Season 4 Cast: Will Adult Akilah Be Introduced? Why Fans Think She Will
Yellowjackets is bringing TV and film legends from the 1980s and ’90s to the cast for the final season, a fitting move for a show that splits half of its time set in the latter decade: Molly Ringwald, Devon Sawa, and Dulé Hill are three of the newcomers to the Yellowjackets Season 4 cast. There’s also a Santa Clarita Diet reunion for Liv Hewson and Days of Our Lives‘ Leo Howard, and June Squibb and Eric Stoltz have also joined the cast.
However, we still have one burning question about the Yellowjackets final season cast: Will adult Akilah be part of it? Did Akilah even make it to adulthood?
Photos from the new season reveal that Akilah does, in fact, get rescued and makes it back to New Jersey with the rest of the survivors. Plus, Nia Sondaya, who plays teen Akilah, has been upped to a series regular in Season 4. In Season 3, a rumor about adult Akilah casting spread online, but it was never a confirmed casting announcement, making Akilah’s future one of the show’s biggest lingering mysteries.
Here’s what we know about the cast of Yellowjackets‘ final season.
Who is in the Yellowjackets Season 4 cast?
Eric Milner/Paramount+
Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress, and Hilary Swank return for the final season as the adult versions of Shawna, Misty, Taissa, and Melissa. Their ’90s counterparts are played by Sophie Nélisse, Samantha Hanratty, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Jenna Burgess, respectively. Warren Kole and Sarah Desjardins also return as Shawna’s husband, Jeff, and daughter, Callie.
Sophie Thatcher, Liv Hewson, and Courtney Eaton play teen Natalie, Van, and Lottie. Their present-day counterparts, played by Juliette Lewis, Lauren Ambrose, and Simone Kessell, were killed off in Seasons 2 and 3. Kevin Alves returns as teen Travis. His adult counterpart, played by Andres Soto, was killed off early in Season 1.
Sondaya has been promoted to a series regular, and photos from the final season reveal she made it out of the wilderness and back home to New Jersey. However, Akilah has never had an adult counterpart, so whether she survived to adulthood is still a big mystery that the final season will hopefully solve. The last time we saw her, she was in a cave with Lottie as the girls awaited rescue.
In Season 3, an actress named Evans Johnson was reportedly listed as adult Akilah on IMDb, but she never appeared in the season, and the role is not on her IMDb page as of the time of publication.
View this post on Instagram
Sondaya said in an interview about Season 3 that Johnson was part of the Yellowjackets “crew” and was a stand-in for her and Brown, so it seems that may be the extent of Johnson’s role on set. If Akilah doesn’t have an adult counterpart, the final season needs to reveal why. And if she does, we need to meet her.
Ringwald and Sawa will both appear in the flashback timeline. Ringwald plays Van’s mom, Victoria “Vicky” Palmer. Vicky is a recovering alcoholic trying to course-correct her troubled past in Season 4. Sawa plays a character named Howard who’s connected to teen Natalie, as seen in photos from the new season, per People. Sawa and Ricci costarred in 1995’s Casper.
Sam Braun plays teen Jeff in the ’90s storyline. Stoltz plays a character whose details are still under wraps.
June Squibb, Dulé Hill, Molly Ringwald, and Devon Sawa in Yellowjackets Season 4 (Eric Milner/Paramount+)
Squibb’s character details have not been revealed other than the fact that her name is Geraldine and she appears in the present-day timeline with Misty (Ricci). Also appearing in the series is Hill as Detective Rollins, and in the present-day storyline, Kelsey Lopes stars as Ilana, Ken Marino as Russell, and Jaylee Hamidi as Alex, daughter of Hannah Finch (Ashley Sutton), the scientist who was held captive and presumably killed by the teens in the wilderness, although her death has yet to be shown.
Adult Melissa (Swank) is married to Alex in the present-day timeline, but Alex didn’t know she was a Yellowjacket. She knew her wife as Kelly, but that’s all changing in the final season.
Howard, who costarred in Santa Clarita Diet with Hewson, plays a mystery character in Season 4. Additional new cast members are Aaron Staton, Cynthia Stevenson, Patricia De León, Noah Harpster, and John Emmet Tracy.
Once upon a time, there was talk about a Yellowjackets bonus episode for which Jason Ritter, Lynskey’s husband, filmed a scene, but it has been shelved with no confirmed release date. Could it be worked into the final season?
Darko Sikman/Paramount+
When does Yellowjackets Season 4 premiere?
Yellowjackets Season 4 premieres on November 20 on Paramount+ Premium. The 10-episode final season will release one episode weekly. In Season 4, per the official logline, “the survivors race to bury their sins before rescue arrives and an old flame roars back into town with plans of her own, turns out not every homecoming is a joyous one, and this one’s going to sting.”
Yellowjackets, Season 4 Premiere, Friday, November 20, Paramount+ With Premium
Conversation
Please read the TV Insider Community Guidelines.
Register or sign in to join the conversation.
Watchlist Easy access to only the shows you care about — all in one simple place
Alerts Only important notifications — when a show is returning, when it becomes available to stream, and more.
Special Offers Exclusive products we release related to your favorite shows and streaming services