Yellowjackets Season 4: Everything We Know

After a pretty up-and-down second season and a long strike-related delay, Yellowjackets Season 3 ended up being the series' most watched yet. It's obvious at this point that Yellowjackets ain't a flash in the pan — this painful story of a high school soccer team's plane crashing in the Canadian wilderness is extremely compelling, thanks in large part to its stellar cast, and folks can't get enough. 

Despite that, the Season 3 finale came and went in early April without any word about a renewal by Showtime, with Yellowjackets' fate seemingly up in the air despite its increasing popularity. But we really shouldn't have worried about it, and Season 4 is coming. Here's what we know about Yellowjackets Season 4. 

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Yellowjackets Season 4 latest news

Molly Ringwald will be a recurring member of the cast for Season 4 as Van's mom, according to Deadline. Since adult Van previously mentioned that her mom died of cancer at some point, Ringwald will presumably be a part of the past timeline, possibly after the team finally returns to civilization.

Deadline also reports that veteran character actor June Squibb (who has nominated for an Oscar for the Alexander Payne film Nebraska) will also have a part to play in Season 4, but the role is a secret.

Will Season 4 be the end of Yellowjackets?

Yes. A few months after the series was renewed for Season 4, co-creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson revealed in an Instagram post that Season 4 would be the end of the road.

"We've always known there would come a point when the story would tell us it wants to end, and it's our belief that our job — our responsibility — is to listen. Telling this emotional, wild, and deeply human story has been a profoundly meaningful experience and a true honor for us, and we're so very grateful to the brilliant cast, crew and writers who have bravely gone on the journey with us to bring it to life. Most of all, we want to thank the fans who have stuck with us through every moment, mystery and meal — the Hive is nothing without you! We can't wait to share the final chapter with you and hope you find it… delicious."

Considering how difficult it is to maintain parallel timelines over time like Yellowjackets does without having the entire thing mapped out in advance — a near-impossibility for any long-running series — it's probably for the best that things wrap up before this epic saga gets too unwieldy.

Yellowjackets Season 4 expected release date

There's been no word yet about when to expect Yellowjackets Season 4 — not even a target year. If we expect Season 4 to come together at the standard pace, then it should premiere by the end of 2026. But with Season 4 being the end of the road, we wouldn't be surprised if it took a little bit longer.

Yellowjackets Season 4 cast

It can be expected that, at the very least, all the living characters will return for Season 4 — and it's also very likely that some of the dead ones will also pop up again. Does that mean we could see Juliette Lewis return as Adult Natalie after she skipped all of Season 3? Definitely, but there are no guarantees. And while Hilary Swank was only a guest star in Season 3 when she popped up as the adult version of Melissa, it's pretty likely she'll be back too.

It appears as though one of the returning cast members will be a bigger role in Season 4, with Nia Sondaya, who played Akilah, being promoted to a series regular for Season 4. Akilah ended up being one of the most important survivors by the end of Season 3, so this one is not all that surprising.

Molly Ringwald and June Squibb will also be joining the show in Season 4. Ringwald will play Van's mom and Squibb's role has not been revealed.

Yellowjackets present-day cast

• Melanie Lynskey as Shauna
• Tawny Cypress as Taissa
• Christina Ricci as Misty
• Sarah Desjardins as Callie
• Warren Kole as Jeff
• Elijah Wood as Walter
• Lauren Ambrose as Van
• Simone Kessell as Lottie
• Juliette Lewis as Natalie
• Hilary Swank as Melissa

Yellowjackets wilderness cast

• Sophie Nelisse as Shauna
• Jasmin Savoy Brown as Taissa
• Sophie Thatcher as Natalie
• Samantha Hanratty as Misty
• Courtney Eaton as Lottie
• Liv Hewson as Van
• Kevin Alves as Travis
• Alexa Barajas as Mari
• Nia Sondaya as Akilah
• Jenna Burgess as Melissa
• Ashley Sutton as Hanna

Where we left off in Yellowjackets Season 3

The Season 3 finale of Yellowjackets was incredibly eventful in both the wilderness and present-day storylines. We saw Shauna finally take her place as the antler queen, and manipulate things so that Mari ends up the subject of a hunt — which led to the reveal that Mari is the mysterious "pit girl" that the girls were eating in the series premiere.

But even as Shauna prepares to begin her reign of terror, Natalie manages to sneak away with the newly repaired radio from the crashed plane, which Misty had kept hidden for most of the series. Natalie takes it all the way up a mountain and then radios for help, and we hear someone answer. It may be that Season 4 will be the end of the wilderness portion of the story, even if the series continues on from there.

The present-day storyline was just as eventful, with the surprisingly alive Melissa killing Van, and then Shauna's daughter Callie admitting to killing Lottie. Callie didn't mean to do it — she reflexively pushed Lottie down some stairs after Lottie very aggressively insisted that Callie was a child of the wilderness who had that same strange spirit her mom had. But maybe Callie was just proving Lottie's point by doing that.

Regardless of the reason, Callie is obviously pretty shaken up by the whole thing, and confesses what happened to her father — and the two of them agree that the best thing for them both is to get as far away from Shauna as they can. Meanwhile, Taissa blames Shauna for Van's death — Shauna did try to murder Melissa first, after all — and it looks like Tai and Misty might be planning to make a move.

Yellowjackets Season 4 potential storylines

Season 4 being the end is a surprise, after Lyle and Nickerson previously emphasized a five-season plan. But considering where we left things at the end of Season 3, with rescue finally on the way, it makes sense for the series endgame to start here.

With that being the case, it's not too tough to see where we're probably going to go in Season 4. First, in the flashback part of the timeline, we've got Shauna in charge of the kingdom and committed to staying in the wilderness, while Nat, Misty, and a few of the others have managed to orchestrate a likely rescue attempt. Since there are still several girls alive in the '90s who haven't been heard from in the present-day part of the story, we should probably expect a bit of a war between Shauna's faction and the resistance, with more deaths guaranteed. And as we saw when the frog scientists showed up in Season 3, it's doubtful that Shauna would let the arrival of a rescue team affect whatever her plan is.

"We feel that there is more story to tell and we're really excited to dive into it," co-showrunner Ashley Lyle told The Hollywood Reporter after the Season 3 finale. "...To be able to tell the story of the reassimilation into society, to see what horrors are in store for them even without the horrors of the wilderness is very exciting. But you can never truly predict and we just will be very grateful that we keep getting to tell the story."

Lyle also told Entertainment Weekly, "As we said, they're not out of the woods yet, both literally and proverbially, but as a child of the '90s, we have not actually gotten to explore the '90s in a real way. And I think that putting them back home at some point in a '90s timeline and getting to fully immerse ourselves in that time period is something I'm really looking forward to."

There may be a big fight in the present, too, as it looks like adult Shauna has decided to take on the whole world by herself — with her husband and daughter now out of the picture, Shauna has lost the two people who had kept her grounded in the years since she'd returned from the wilderness, and the other survivors can tell that's not a good thing. We saw the deaths of two of the survivors in Season 3, and it's likely that Season 4 will also have a body count in the present-day storyline. 

Meanwhile, we still have a massive wild card in the form of Walter, who's been up to something since the day he met Misty in Season 2. After Misty pushed Walter away in Season 3, he clearly kept busy doing something related to the main plot, but we still don't have any clue what it is or what his deal might be. Presumably, all will finally be revealed in Season 4.

Where to watch Yellowjackets

All three existing seasons of Yellowjackets are available to stream on Paramount+ with Showtime.

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