Yellowjackets Season 2: Cast, Release Date, How to Watch, and Everything Else to Know

Everyone's taking a bite out of Yellowjackets. The hit drama broke Showtime streaming records with its Season 2 debut, which became the cable network's most streamed season premiere — and was also Yellowjackets' most watched episode yet. It looks like the long wait for new episodes only made fans hungrier. 

Yellowjackets follows the aftermath of a plane crash that strands a high school girls' soccer team in the wilderness in the '90s, with a split timeline that also keeps track of how the survivors are coping (or not) in the present day. Add in an intriguing, possibly supernatural puzzle (what's the deal with the woods?) and a dash of teens eating people, and you've got a show no one's been able to stop theorizing about. We're looking forward to uncovering some answers and a whole lot of new questions as the season continues.

Here's everything we know about Yellowjackets Season 2.

The Yellowjackets Cast Reacts to the Season 2 Fan Theories

How to watch Yellowjackets

Yellowjackets streams on Showtime and Showtime Anytime, as well as on Paramount+ if you subscribe on the Paramount+ with Showtime tier. New episodes of Season 2 are available to stream each Friday at 12:01 am ET. 

New episodes of Yellowjackets also air on cable Sundays at 9/8c on Showtime. 

Yellowjackets Season 2 release date

Yellowjackets Season 2 premiered Friday, March 24 on Showtime. 

The release date was announced in December 2022 with the help of a cryptic video.

Yellowjackets Season 2 cast

This season, more plane crash survivors will continue to pop up. Lauren Ambrose (Servant) joins the cast as an adult Van, along with Obi-Wan Kenobi actress Simone Kessell as adult Lottie.

Elijah Wood has been cast as a guest star on the series. The former Lord of the Rings actor plays Walter, a nosy citizen detective in the present-day storyline who is apparently on to Misty's diabolical ways. Walter will "challenge Misty in ways she won't see coming," according to Showtime. 

Nuha Jes Izman has also been added as a recurring guest star and is set to play Crystal, a theater lover who forms a friendship with Misty (we can already smell trouble there). Apparently, her character will be significant to the plot.

Yellowjackets main cast:

• Melanie Lynskey - Adult Shauna
• Sophie Nélisse - Teen Shauna
• Christina Ricci - Adult Misty
• Samantha Hanratty - Teen Misty
• Juliette Lewis - Adult Natalie
• Sophie Thatcher - Teen Natalie
• Tawny Cypress - Adult Taissa
• Jasmin Savoy Brown - Teen Taissa

Yellowjackets Season 2 interviews

Episode 1: TV Guide's coverage of Yellowjackets Season 2 kicked off with an interview with star Sophie Nélisse and series co-creator Ashley Lyle about the season premiere's shocking ending. Read it here.

Episode 2: The stars of Yellowjackets revealed what they were actually eating at that feast in Episode 2. Read it here.

Check back for more as the season continues.

Yellowjackets Season 2 trailer

Showtime released the first Season 2 trailer on March 9, showing more of what was teased in the first teaser, including a lot more yelling and Florence + The Machine's cover of No Doubt's "Just a Girl."

The first teaser trailer for Season 2, released in January, shows the Yellowjackets looking pretty chilly as winter arrives in the '90s timeline, while the present-day survivors continue to deal with the "darkness" they brought back with them. The teaser also offers a look at Elijah Wood as Walter, who tells Misty (Christina Ricci), "Kidnapping, cults, death — your friendships are a little more complicated than most."

Yellowjackets Season 1 recap

The first season ended with a traumatic, chilling finale. (Head here for our conversation with Ella Purnell.) Jackie (Ella Purnell) met with her shocking death alone in the snow after being ostracized by her teammates, and Travis's brother Javi (Luciano Leroux) went missing after the girls' hallucinogenic night in the woods. In the present day, we found out Lottie is still very much alive and is maybe even the founder of a cult, and Natalie was kidnapped from her motel room and dragged off into a van. 

We headed into Season 2 with plenty of questions: What happened to Shauna's baby? Will we finally find out which girl was running for her life at the beginning of Episode 1? What is the (potentially supernatural) deal with the woods? And how many ways can this show shock us? In March, co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco told Entertainment Weekly, "If we do our jobs right, the eating of a person will not be the most transgressive thing that these young women do in the wilderness."

Yellowjackets Season 3 renewal

Season 2 won't be our last trip to the wilderness. Ahead of the Season 2 premiere, Showtime renewed Yellowjackets for a third season. Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime and Paramount Media Networks, announced the news on Dec. 15, 2022.

That brings Yellowjackets one step closer to what its creators hope will be a five-season arc. Co-creator Ashley Lyle told EW in March, "The original plan was five seasons, and we feel like we're still on track for that." Lyle added that while things change, the team behind the Showtime series doesn't expect it to run for more than five seasons.

Shows like Yellowjackets

Looking to pass the time while you wait for Season 2? We've rounded up a list of similar shows you can take a bite out of, whether you're into thrilling mysteries, unsettling survival stories, prickly teens, or '90s nostalgia.