‘Yellowjackets’: Christina Ricci Teases ‘People Die’ and Scene With Younger Castmate in Season 3

“This is the most fun and exciting season yet. It’s very smart and shocking — and people die,” teases Christina Ricci, who plays the grownup version of pert but deadly people pleaser and perpetual outsider, nurse Misty Quigley on the dual-timeline psychological horror thriller Yellowjackets. The series follows a high school soccer team stranded in the wilderness after a 1996 plane crash, and those same characters, post-rescue, 25 years later. The women are haunted by the secret cannibalism that kept them alive (to cover it up, they’ve killed again) and divided on the existence of a mysterious bloodthirsty entity that may have followed them out of the woods.

Misty, the odd one out of the oddball group, suffered another trauma in the second installment’s finale, which aired in May of 2023. The survivors were gathered at unhinged guru Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) spirituality retreat and things spiraled into them recreating their teenage ritualistic hunt. The prey was stay-at-home mom Shauna (Melanie Lynskey). In the chaos Misty accidentally fatally stabbed her imagined bestie, rebellious Natalie (Juliette Lewis), with a syringe of phenobarbital. Authorities blamed an accidental overdose, Lottie was taken to a psychiatric hospital, Misty’s boyfriend Walter (Elijah Wood) poisoned a cop and framed him for the murder Shauna committed, and the Yellowjackets carried on with more to hide.

Ricci previews what’s next for Misty when Season 3 premieres on February 14 (streaming, two days later linearly).

What’s it like without Juliette on set?

Christina Ricci: I really miss her. She’s wonderful, genuine, and fun. We were all very bonded, like sisters. We fought; we were friends. We spent hours and hours together, miserable, cold in the middle of the night out shooting. That bonds people.

Related

'Yellowjackets' Trailer: Is Hilary Swank a Wilderness Survivor? Plus, Jackie Is Back (VIDEO)

How is Misty coping with Natalie’s death? It’s not the first time she accidentally killed a bestie. In the teen timeline, her confession to Crystal that she’d destroyed the plane’s emergency beacon shocked her pal into backing off a cliff.

She can’t grieve when we see her in the beginning. Walter is trying to push her to grieve and get through that process. She goes to [Natalie’s] storage unit [and] because she doesn’t have a lot of healthy emotional intelligence, coping skills, or self-awareness, decides that instead of grieving, she’s going to keep Natalie alive in some way — dressing like Natalie [in her leather jacket] and [doing] what Natalie used to do, go to bars and drink and then…stuff happens. Misty misplaces her aggression for a bit of the season until she can find a focus.

Beware anyone in murderous Misty’s crosshairs! Someone better warn the mysterious new character played by Hilary Swank, who looks pretty beaten up in photos from the set. What was it like to have her join the cast?

I was really excited. I’ve always been a huge fan. She’s such a wonderful actress and her performance in Million Dollar Baby is one of my favorite performances ever. When she came, everyone was like, “Oh, do you think she’s going to be nice?” I was like, “It doesn’t matter. She is a two-time Oscar winner! She doesn’t have to be nice to us.” She happens to be really lovely. So, great bonus.

Could her character be a threat? The teaser trailer implies someone is trying to kill the Yellowjackets.

That is something that is said by characters in the show, but whether that is a major storyline or not is yet to be discovered.

Was anything challenging to shoot this season?

The younger cast has a much worse time because they’re always out in the woods and it’s usually nighttime. We had a taste of it because that’s where we shot the Juliette death scene. Wind will make me gag until I throw up. I don’t like cold, rain. I had them convinced that we couldn’t get my wig wet; then, finally, somebody found out that, no, you can. This season there was a lot of running at one point, and it made me very tired.

Victoria Will / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME

Season 2’s 1996 timeline ended with a fire destroying the teens’ only shelter, an abandoned cabin, in the middle of winter. Did you spend time with Sammi Hanratty who plays the young Misty?

We talked a little bit. Because it’s Vancouver and I have kids and they’re in LA, I fly in, do my scenes, and I leave. I have one scene with one of the younger cast this year, and that was kind of amazing. It had never happened before.

Intriguing! What else is new for Misty?

She’s been smiling through rejection since the wilderness and before. I have difficulty sometimes playing the scenes where someone will be nasty to Misty, and it’s like she doesn’t hear it. This season, there’s going to be a lot more real emotional expression. [That’s] easier to play. It makes sense when somebody’s mean to me in a scene and I get to feel hurt and be nasty back.

Yellowjackets, Season 3 Premiere (two episodes), February 14 on Paramount+ with Showtime; February 16, Showtime