‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Will Have You Eating Your Heart Out With a Valentine's Day Release Date

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Don’t cross the Yellowjackets. They’re on a winning spree that even a plane crash can’t stop, because Yellowjackets was renewed for season 3 before season 2 (which is officially out, btw!) even premiered on Showtime. What exactly does that mean, you ask? Welp, just that you don’t have to worry that we’ll never find out who the girls did and did not eat or whether Coach Ben survived…at least not yet!

I truly hope this show never ends. It’s so cathartic to watch this “what if Lord of the Flies but girls” show and revel in the fact that ~young ladies~ would be smarter in some ways and just as brutal and cult worship-y in others.

When is Yellowjackets coming back for season 3?

On May 2, 2023, co-creator Ashley Lyle gave a production update via Twitter and revealed that the writers’ room for season 3 had met for only one day (!!) before the WGA strike went into effect.

“Well, we had exactly one day in the #Yellowjackets S3 writers’ room. It was amazing and creatively invigorating and so much fun, and I’m very excited to get back to it as soon as the #WGA gets a fair deal. #1u #UnionStrong,” she wrote.

And now the cast is back at it with Showtime revealing that production has restarted in May 2024. The first episode is already been written by co-creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson alongside Jonathan Lisco (all three are showrunners). With all three of them involved, you know it's gonna be HUGE!

But the Yellowjackets team decided to give us a special gift for the holidays and revealed the show will be back on Valentine's Day. Oh, and they did it with the creepiest teaser we've seen. Now *that's* what we call love!

Who will join the cast of Yellowjackets for season 3?

Yellowjackets isn’t exactly the biggest guest star show, but casting announcements were one of the most exciting parts of the break between season 1 and season 2. The show added Simone Kessell, Lauren Ambrose, François Arnaud, and Elijah Wood in the second season. What former child actors/’90s and ’00s faves are next to join the cast, as either adult versions of the survivors or present-day characters? I would love to see Gabrielle Union on the show or Thora Birch. What about Soleil Moon Frye, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or Jaleel White? I could keep going!

One person who is absolutely joining? Joel McHale is joining the cast in a guest starring role. Who he is playing is currently being kept under wraps, according to The Hollywood Reporter, so guess we'll still have to wait and see. They did create a wild video for the casting announcement, so let's just say the creepiness is still alive and well.

Also, like…do you all get the feeling there are other people in the wilderness? I kind of do. Or at least, I wouldn’t be *shocked* if they encountered another group at some point.

What’s going to happen on Yellowjackets in season 3?

The producers have said before that the plan for Yellowjackets story-wise spans five seasons. That doesn’t mean the show has been renewed for five seasons (it hasn’t yet) or that the plan won’t change (the folks behind Succession also said four or five seasons, and that show just ended with four).

What it does mean is that if all goes according to plan, season 3 will be the middle of the story. If my math is right, it will be the second summer the girls, Travis, and possibly Ben and Javi spend in the wilderness. In theory, that’s good news. It was easier for the survivors to feed themselves when the weather was warmer. It was also easier to not, like, die from the elements like Jackie did. But I wouldn’t put it past this show not to go all Midsommar with some daylight/warm-weather horror. I think season 3 is going to be the worst summer ever for the Yellowjackets in a way.

Back in the present timeline, what happens in season 3 depends a lot on what happens in season 2. Are the adult former Yellowjackets going to do more crime? Get away with more murder? Will they all join Lottie’s cult intentional community? We’ll just have to wait and see!

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