Yellowjackets Season 3: Release date, trailer, plot, more
ShowtimeFans are eagerly awaiting Yellowjackets Season 3, Showtime’s teen drama series filled with lies, betrayal, and cannibalism. Here’s everything we know about the upcoming season.
Yellowjackets Season 2 finished in May 2023, and boy did it end in a blaze of glory… literally.
The binge-worthy TV show follows two separate timelines – one in the 1990s, one starting in 2021 – after a high school girl’s soccer team survives a catastrophic plane crash, left in the Canadian wilderness to try and survive. If you haven’t watched the show yet, let’s just say things get very weird after this point.
Four years on and it’s one of Showtime’s most popular hits, but the wait for the third installment has been brutal. Here’s what we know about Yellowjackets Season 3 so far.
Yellowjackets season 3 release date
The first two episodes of Yellowjackets Season 3 premiere Friday, February 14, 2025 for subscribers of Paramount+ with Showtime, as well as on demand. From there, new episodes will be released weekly.
The season debut will subsequently air on cable Sunday, February 16.
ShowtimeYellowjackets Season 3 cast
Key cast members Christina Ricci, Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, and Lauren Ambrose are all returning for new episodes, alongside the younger versions of themselves.
The news was confirmed by Vanity Fair in first-look images if of the quartet at the end of October.
The complete list of confirmed cast members and characters for season 3 includes:
- Sophie Nélisse as teen Shauna
- Jasmin Savoy Brown as teen Taissa
- Samantha Hanratty as teen Misty
- Liv Hewson as teen Van
- Sophie Thatcher as teen Nat
- Elijah Wood as Walter
- Warren Kole as Jeff
- Sarah Desjardins as Callie
- Steven Krueger as Ben
- Courtney Eaton as teen Lottie
- Alexa Barajas as Mari
Additionally, there will be several new characters this time around. The Bear star Joel McHale has been cast in a guest role, while Hilary Swank will be joining as a recurring character. Even so, we’ve got no idea exactly who they will be.
What’s more, the official trailer for season 3 also confirmed that Ella Purnell will be back as Jackie once more. Purnell surprised fans in season 2 by appearing in multiple flashbacks and hallucinations and it’s expected she’ll be doing the same for the new season.
However, we can guess who won’t be back; namely Juliette Lewis as adult Natalie and Alex Wyndhamn as Detective Kevyn Tan, as per the ending of Season 2. It’s also a question of whether or not Lottie will be back, as the finale sees her sent off to another mental institution.
Teen actors Luciano Leroux and Nuha Jes Izman will likely not return either due to their dark fates at the hands of the Wilderness, unless flashbacks/hallucinations are a factor.
Season 3 plot details
The official synopsis for Yellowjackets season 3 reads as the following:
“The Yellowjackets continue to fight for survival after a brutal winter in The Wilderness. In the present day, still reeling from Natalie’s death, the survivors are forced to uncover secrets they thought were buried for good.”
We know the Pit Girl scene is going to happen in a future season, so Season 3 will likely be about getting to that point. We’ve been in the Wilderness for around 10 months now, meaning there’s nine months left until rescue.
Showtime“I will say we see Season 3 as a little bit of a return to Season 1 in terms of the vibe. All I will say is that the girls have been out there [in the wilderness] for a while, and they’re thriving,” creator Ashley Lyle told The Wrap.
Star Christina Ricci added “This season is going to be even more shocking and surprising than the previous seasons. It’s definitely going to be brutal. But they also put a lot of comedy into it. So, I think it’s just going to be… extremely Yellowjackets-y.”
While we don’t know specifics, Lyle has hinted that fans are about to see the two timelines converge into one.
“The two timelines always felt like the linchpin to the show for us,” she shared with Vanity Fair. “This season is really when we start bringing those pieces together. That was always the plan. It is very satisfying to have elements of this season that were planned from the very beginning.
“I cannot get into specifics, I wish I could, but there are a couple of big things in this season that were in the very initial pitches before we even took it out to networks, that we’ve finally got the chance to execute and to play out. The satisfaction of having something in your brains for that long and finally having it come to pass is very exciting.”
ShowtimeDirector Karyn Kusama also teased further exploration of the survivors’ re-introduction to the world in 1998 – something we only scratch the surface of in Season 2.
“I’ve been so excited by this,” she told Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “The concept of that immediate aftermath of re-entry into the world, to me, there’s a whole season worth of material there. And the fact that this is such a long game that each of these characters is facing, in terms of reorienting themselves to whatever normalcy is supposed to be.
“I’m sure we’re going to learn that their normal is a lot different than our normal… there’s a lot that needs to be figured out between Season 2 and Season 3.”
If we’re to believe the creators when they say Yellowjackets will run for five seasons – and we know the girls were in the wilderness for 19 months – we can also expect a weather change sooner rather than later.
What happened at the end of Season 2?
Season 2 sees Lottie’s ritual in the present day, which is then scrapped in favor of having her committed. Taissa and Van secretly call off the crisis team, but Misty tries to jab her with a lethal injection. Natalie takes the brunt of it, dying in Misty’s arms.
Season 3 details are still vague at this point, but there’s plenty of questions yet to answer… and lots of Season 2 problems need to be addressed.
In the modern day, there’s Taissa’s sleepwalking, her family, and her State Senator career. There’s Van’s terminal cancer and her relationship with Taissa.
Misty’s got a lot to deal with after Natalie’s death, though Walter will no doubt be there to help her. Considering how much murder there’s been in the present day, we can’t expect the Yellowjackets to avoid the law much longer. And while Lottie has been carted away, she could be back to wreak more havoc in the future.
As for the past, we still don’t fully know what happened with Javi when he disappeared, or who his “friend” was. We still don’t know the fate of Crystal’s body, or whether or not Coach Ben – who has abandoned the group – started the fire that burned the cabin down.
Speaking of the cabin, this lack of shelter may be what finally pushes the girls into full savage mode. As we explain in our Season 2 ending analysis, Natalie has accepted her place as the leader of the Yellowjackets, with Lottie as their messenger.
Is there a trailer?
After months of anticipating, the official trailer for Yellowjackets Season 3 finally dropped on January 22, 2025.
As one should expect from the series, there’s plenty of hidden details in the footage, from secret messages, stabbings, and more. These questions will no doubt be answered when the new season drops but until then, all these looming questions remain unanswered.
Seasons 1-2 of Yellowjackets can be watched on Paramount Plus. While you wait for Season 3, catch up with more spooky telly like Stranger Things Season 5 and Wednesday Season 2. You can also check out more TV shows streaming this month alongside the best TV shows of the year so far.