The third season of the American thriller drama television series Yellowjackets premiered on Showtime on February 16, 2025. Series creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson serve as the showrunners for the season, alongside executive producer Jonathan Lisco. The series is centered on the teenage survivors of a 1996 plane crash in the wilderness. The narrative is set in dual timelines: the first follows the teens in the 1990s as they must learn to survive in the wild after the crash, while the second takes place 25 years later and focuses on the survivors' attempts to readjust after rescue and confront the truth about what they did to survive.
The ensemble cast includes Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Sammi Hanratty, Steven Krueger, Warren Kole, and Christina Ricci, who all return from the previous season. Sarah Desjardins was promoted to the main cast after featuring in a recurring role in the previous seasons. Hilary Swank and Joel McHale joined the cast in guest starring roles.
In December 2022, ahead of Yellowjackets second season, Showtime renewed the series for a third season. Season three was originally expected to premiere sometime in 2024; however, production was delayed due to the WGA and SAG strikes of 2023. Season three consists of ten episodes. Reviews were generally positive, though critics were unsure about the direction of the series and criticized the present-day storyline.
Cast
Main Melanie Lynskey as Shauna Sadecki, née Shipman Sophie Nélisse as teen Shauna Tawny Cypress as Taissa Turner Jasmin Savoy Brown as teen Taissa Christina Ricci as Misty Quigley Sammi Hanratty as teen Misty Sophie Thatcher as Natalie Scatorccio Steven Krueger as Ben Scott Warren Kole as Jeff Sadecki Simone Kessell as Lottie Matthews Courtney Eaton as teen Lottie Lauren Ambrose as Vanessa "Van" Palmer Liv Hewson as teen Van Kevin Alves as Travis Martinez Sarah Desjardins as Callie Sadecki
Recurring Ella Purnell as Jackie Taylor Elijah Wood as Walter Tattersall Alexa Barajas as Mari Ibarra Nia Sondaya as Akilah Jenna Burgess as teen Melissa Ashley Sutton as Hannah Sophia Finch Vanessa Prasad as Gen Anisa Harris as Robin Silvana Estifanos as Britt
Guest Hilary Swank as adult Melissa Joel McHale as Kodiak Nicole Maines as Lisa Rukiya Bernard as Simone Abara Aiden Stoxx as Sammy Abara-Turner
Episodes
Production
Development
Yellowjackets was renewed by Showtime for a third season on December 15, 2022, ahead of the release of season two. It was originally anticipated to premiere sometime in 2024. The writers' room was one day into work on the new season when the WGA went on strike, delaying production.
On October 31, 2024, Vanity Fair released an exclusive first look which confirmed an "early 2025" release for season three. The show's creators said the new season would resolve many outstanding mysteries, with Ashley Lyle stating that it will "realize much of the vision for the show that she and her co-creator, Bart Nickerson, developed at the very outset", and that there will be at least "two very big questions with very clear answers." She also noted that this season would see "an overlapping of the past and present."
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the show's creators stated that the death of adult Natalie would drive season three. They also stated that Juliette Lewis will not appear in the third season, as it did not make sense to them, but that they are open to the possibility of her appearing in some form or another, such as flashbacks, in the future. They also stated that while the season is in some ways campier and more fun, it is ultimately not lighter in tone. Christina Ricci said the season has a "really high body count."
On November 19, 2024, a premiere date was scheduled for February 16, 2025. The bonus episode that was planned for release between seasons two and three remained unaired. The episode was widely believed to focus on the origin of the abandoned cabin that was introduced in season one. In December 2024, Lyle stated, "The truth is that there is a bonus episode but we may need to wait a bit longer for it."
On May 20, 2025, Showtime renewed Yellowjackets for a fourth season. In October, the show's creators confirmed the fourth season would be the series' final one.
Casting
On November 21, 2024, it was reported that Sarah Desjardins, who portrayed Shauna Sadecki's daughter Callie in the first and second seasons of Yellowjackets in a recurring role, was promoted to the regular cast. In addition, it was announced that two teen characters would be played by new actresses, Anisa Harris and Silvana Estifanos. In August 2024, Joel McHale was announced to be joining the cast in a guest starring role. The following month, Hilary Swank joined the cast as another guest star. In January 2025, it was reported that Ashley Sutton was cast in an unknown recurring role, appearing in four out of ten episodes.
Filming Filming began in the Vancouver area on May 14, 2024. After primarily filming on a soundstage for season two, the production returned to filming outdoors. Showrunners Bart Nickerson and Jonathan Lisco made their directorial debuts this season, with Nickerson directing "It Girl" and Lisco helming "Them's the Brakes."
Release A first look video for the new season was released on the official Yellowjackets channel on YouTube on December 7, 2024. The full trailer was released on January 22, 2025.
On February 10, 2025, Entertainment Weekly released a set of exclusive photos which depicted, among other things, Shauna biting Mari's arm, with the promise of additional exclusives each day of the week.
The season premiered on Showtime with two episodes on February 16, 2025. As with the previous season, new episodes were made available two days prior to the linear TV date for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers. Reception
Audience viewership The third season became the show's most-watched season yet. In the weekend of its release, the season premiere gained over two million viewers in its opening weekend, mostly from streaming. The season finale drew three million cross-platform viewers in its first seven days, making it the series' highest-viewed season finale yet.
Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the season holds an approval rating of 84% based on 134 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Still at its very best when lost in the wilderness, Yellowjackets third season is inescapably uneven but carried along effortlessly by its stronger elements." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 64 out of 100 based on 25 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Shirley Li of The Atlantic wrote, Yellowjackets "is now built for—and deliberately toying with—the die-hard viewer who's watching the show for its revelations, as silly as they may be." She added, "The show doesn't comment on modern-day politics or today's headlines, but it captures the feeling of being inundated with surreal news. The result is a season that's ludicrous in plot yet freshly unsettling in its portrayal of how people can become resigned to their fate." In The Hollywood Reporter, Angie Han wrote, "Now in its third go-round, the drama still wobbles in pursuit of an ideal balance. But as ever, it's guided by character dynamics juicy enough, and performances excellent enough, to keep you watching."
Salon.com Melanie McFarland wrote that the absence of Juliette Lewis was akin to "breaking up the actor equivalent of a '90s supergroup", and criticized the writing of adult Taissa, Van, and Lottie's character arcs. Particular praise was given to the performances of Lynskey, Ricci, Nélisse, Thatcher, Hanratty, and Krueger. Elizabeth Alsop of the Los Angeles Review of Books, however, disagreed with "the decision to dial Shauna's psychotic behavior in both timelines up to 11", feeling that an overt villain arc "sends the show careening toward melodrama, turning what was a spiky, original look at group survival dynamics into something more like a morality play".
The present-day timeline received criticisms for its unsteady narrative and tonal dissonance with its 1990s counterpart. In Vulture, Roxana Hadadi noted while it is admirable to give the core adult characters separate plot arcs, "Yellowjackets forgets that a major appeal of this ensemble is what its members get up to together." She added "season three feels like Yellowjackets wiping the board of its adult story lines rather than working them out of the corners they've been written into". Hadadi said the show is at its best when it focuses on "what makes these girls and women tick, maneuvering the characters to reflect the thin line between civility and the feral...But the impenetrability of where this story is going, and the dwindling numbers of who will survive by the end of it, are diminishing shadows that glow."
Reviews were critical of the ongoing mystery storylines and withholding of answers, particularly the question of whether the supernatural force that the survivors face in the wilderness is an actual entity or a symptom of psychological trauma. Some critics said that the show had fallen into the same traps as Lost, another plane crash drama with mystery box elements. In Vanity Fair, Joshua Rivera said the series' "emphasis on mystery and posing questions it can't answer has historically been why its present-day story lacks the dynamism of the '90s plot; if any of the present-day cast is too outspoken about what they experienced, well, that kills the tension of the flashbacks". Rivera concluded, "Depending on what brings you to Yellowjackets, this new season will either bring disappointment or seem like a turn in the right direction…If the series continues to shed its puzzle-box baggage...there remains plenty of room for the series to settle into a sharp, mean survival story, complemented by biting satirical dramedy. That would be more than enough for Yellowjackets to make it through the woods."
Accolades At the 5th Astra TV Awards, Yellowjackets received five nominations, including for Best Cast Ensemble in a Streaming Drama Series, and Best Directing in a Drama Series for Jennifer Morrison, who directed the episode "Croak". Hilary Swank won for Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
Notes
References
External links Official website