‘Yellowjackets’ Adds Joel McHale as Guest Star — When Does Season 3 Premiere?
Good news, Yellowjackets fans: Season 3 has been in production since May. The series announced that production had begun on May 14, sharing photos from the wilderness set and a shot of the Season 3 premiere script — an episode that will undoubtedly reveal what happened after the team’s cabin was set ablaze in the Season 2 finale.
As for the present-day timeline, Season 2 ended with the shocking and heartbreaking death of one of the adult survivors. That cliffhanger and more will need to be addressed upon the Emmy-nominated series’ return. But when will that be? Here are all the latest updates on Yellowjackets Season 3, including Joel McHale‘s casting, which was announced on Tuesday, August 27.
Is Yellowjackets Season 3 filming?
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After being delayed by the 2023 Hollywood strikes, Yellowjackets kicked off Season 3 filming in May. The show’s Instagram page shared various photos from the wilderness set in Vancouver, Canada, including one of Season 3 Episode 1’s script hanging on a clothesline between a t-shirt and a flannel. The episode title isn’t revealed on the script’s front page, but it does say that it’s written by the Yellowjackets showrunners, Jonathan Lisco, Ashley Lyle, and Bart Nickerson, and directed by Nickerson. The episode will mark Nickerson’s directorial debut, and Season 3 Episode 3 will be Lisco’s.
“We know you’re starving… #Yellowjackets Season 3 is officially in production,” the cheeky caption says.
When does Yellowjackets Season 3 come out?
As previously reported, Yellowjackets Season 3 is likely to premiere in 2025 on Paramount+ With Showtime (formerly called Showtime). The writers’ room had reconvened for just one day when the WGA writers’ strike began in May of 2023, subsequently shutting down production. The series regrouped in September 2023 after both the writers and actors’ strikes ended.
Colin Bentley / SHOWTIME
What happens in Yellowjackets Season 3?
Yellowjackets follows a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players that survive a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. There seem to be mystical forces at work in the woods, driving them all to desperate lengths to stay alive and sane. The biggest threat they face is hunger — and what they’re willing to do to each other to satiate their appetites.
We’ve known since Season 1 that the girls remained stranded in the woods for 19 months. The first season also constantly teased the night the team ate their team captain, Jackie (Fallout‘s Ella Purnell), but we didn’t learn the circumstances that brought that about until Season 2. Rather than the team or one of its members killing Jackie like some viewers theorized, Jackie died alone by freezing to death in a snowstorm. They were going to burn her body for her funeral, but then a pile of snow fell from a tree and onto her pyre.
Unbeknownst to the team, the fire didn’t go out completely, resulting in Jackie being slow-cooked. The ravenously hungry girls couldn’t help but feast. Their coach, Ben (Steven Krueger), was horrified and distanced himself from the girls after that, fearing he could be next. Because he wasn’t present when the cabin was engulfed in flames, Ben is looking quite guilty.
In the future timeline, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Natalie (Juliette Lewis), Misty (Christina Ricci), Taissa (Tawny Cypress), and Van (Lauren Ambrose) were at Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) cultish compound when things took a deadly turn. A night of reconnecting with each other turned into a night of recreating their wilderness hunts, resulting in Misty accidentally killing Natalie with a deadly injection of a poisonous substance. That shocking twist makes young Natalie’s (Sophie Thatcher) time in the woods even more important. Misty’s love interest, Walter (Elijah Wood), was there to save the day and cover for Misty.
Suffice it to say that Season 3 has some explaining to do. The series is on track to create a total of five seasons. While there’s no logline for Season 3 just yet, Krueger said he expects it to be the most violent yet.
“I think Season 3 will probably be the wildest, bloodiest season that we have,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “Granted, we don’t know anything to be fair,” Steven Krueger who plays Coach Ben, said. “Granted, we don’t know anything to be fair. I’m just guessing that’s where it’s going.”
Samantha Hanratty (teen Misty) thinks Season 3 will be defined by grief. “I think that with that grief, it’s gonna bring out a lot of interesting levels of the other characters and I’m really excited to see that. Sophie Thatcher (teen Natalie) is gonna keep Natalie’s legacy living,” she told ET, adding that the upcoming season could be “the meltdown.”
“I’m gonna put it out there that Season 1 is chaotic and messy, Season 2 is like still cold and dark and it was winter, and then this one was the meltdown,” Hanratty said. “You’re going to see the melting of like what these people are and really get to see like the broness of these girls.”
Kailey Schwerman / SHOWTIME
Who is in the Yellowjackets Season 3 cast? Is Juliette Lewis coming back?
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The Season 3 cast will presumably feature all of the adult stars except for Lewis, unless she returns in some kind of flashback or supernatural form. The present-day cast includes Warren Cole as Shauna’s husband, Jeff. The ’90s cast includes Sophie Nélisse (teen Shauna), Jasmin Savoy Brown (teen Taissa), Liv Hewson (teen Van), Courtney Eaton (teen Lottie), and Kevin Alves (teen Travis). All are believed to be part of the Season 3 cast.
Community alum Joel McHale will appear as a guest star in Season 3. The series revealed his casting by incorporating a photo of McHale into an edit of the show’s opening theme song in a video posted to Instagram on August 27 (see above). Details about his character have not yet been revealed. The actor was most recently seen in The Bear Season 3 and is currently starring in Fox‘s Animal Control and the reality series Crime Scene Kitchen is the host of E!‘s House of Villains.
Is the Yellowjackets bonus episode still coming?
There is reportedly a Yellowjackets bonus episode coming before Season 3 premieres. Lyle said in June during last year’s strikes that the episode was still incoming, but that it wasn’t premiering on June 1 like a fan theorized. The Yellowjackets bonus episode is still believed to be on the way. The episode will reportedly bridge Seasons 2 and 3 together.
Is there a Yellowjackets Season 3 trailer?
There currently is no trailer for Season 3, but the show’s Instagram page frequently shares videos of the cast on set to entertain fans while they wait.
Stay tuned here as we continue to report the latest updates on Yellowjackets Season 3!
Yellowjackets, Season 3 Premiere, 2025, Paramount+ With Showtime
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