“Become what you fear, fear what you become…”
The first two episodes of Season 2 of Yellowjackets drop on Showmax on 1 April 2023, with new episodes on Saturdays.
The hit Showtime series follows a high school girls’ soccer team that survives a plane crash in the ’90s. The Yellowjackets barely made it through summerbut now, as winter begins to bite, we’ll see if hunger and desperation turn into full-on psychosis. Meanwhile, 25 years later, each survivor must determine if the darkness is coming for them or from them.
Yellowjackets’ first season was named Best Horror at the 2022 Critics Choice Super Awards and Best Drama at the 2022 Critics Choice Awards. It was also nominated for seven Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series.
The new season sees Melanie Lynskey (Candy) back in her Critics Choice and Critics Choice Super-winning role as Shauna, alongside Christina Ricci (Wednesday) in her Emmy-nominated role as Misty, multi-award winner Tawny Cypress (The Blacklist: Redemption) in her Black Reel Award-nominated role as Taissa, and Oscar nominee Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers) as Natalie.
Their teen characters are once again portrayed by Critics Choice nominee Sophie Nélisse (The Book Thief), Samantha Hanratty (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody), Sophie Thatcher (The Book of Boba Fett), and Jasmin Savoy Brown (Scream, The Leftovers) in her GALECA- and Queerties-nominated role as the young Taissa.
This season also introduces Critics Choice winner Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy) as Walter, a citizen detective who seems to know more than he should.
Season 2 is again a hit with the critics, with a 94% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As The Guardian says, “Juliette Lewis is sublime, Christina Ricci finds her perfect co-star [Elijah Wood], and you’re constantly kept on your toes with parallel timelines and tons of creepy thrills. What a follow-up!… This wonderfully imaginative sequel is even better than last time.”
If Season 1 got people talking, Season 2 has set social media alight with speculation about the multiple mysteries at the core of the show, including whether or not there is a dark and powerful force inhabiting the wilderness. “I love the fan theories,” Tawny told IMDb. “I love that people are imagining all these different possibilities. You’re all wrong. But keep going. It’s fun.”
Season 1 saw the teenage Taissa dating Yellowjackets goalkeeper, Vanessa “Van” Palmer (Liv Hewson from Bombshell and Santa Clarita Diet), but the adult Van was notably missing from the 2021 timeline. She’s finally introduced in Season 2, played by Emmy nominee Lauren Ambrose from Servant and Six Feet Under.
Already nominated for an Emmy for its Outstanding Casting, the show has once again nailed the scary-resemblance factor with the teen and adult versions of Van. As Samantha puts it, “Seeing Liv and Lauren together, there is no way these two aren’t related. I think we need to do a DNA test ASAP, because it’s pretty uncanny.”
On coming in as the grown-up Van, Lauren told Collider, “I just really loved Liv’s performance, [which] was so good that they decided to keep the character around… and now I have a gig! So I’m grateful for that.”
Also coming in to shake things up for the former Yellowjackets is actress Simone Kessell (Princess Leia’s mother in Obi-Wan Kenobi and Blackbeard’s mother on Our Flag Means Death), to answer one of the Season 1 finale’s biggest cliffhangers – “Who the f*ck is Lottie Matthews?”
But, back in 1996, it’s about to get very cold and very dark for the teenage Yellowjackets. “Last season was crazy. This season is insane. And there’s something eerily different about that,” Samantha said during a round-table with Entertainment Weekly.
Liv said, “I feel like it’s ratcheted up a lot in terms of intensity and the stakes being higher, and the places that the show feels confident going and what’s being asked of everybody. It’s more extreme… I’m really proud of it, and I’m excited for people to see it. … and then there’s a couple of things I’m nervous about.”