THE first two episodes of season two 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 summer, but 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 two is another 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 one got people talking, season two 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.
Season one 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 the new season, played by Emmy nominee Lauren Ambrose from Servant and Six Feet Under.
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 one 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. Watch the trailer here.
