YELLOWJACKETS Co-Creator Discusses Its Five Season Story Plan
With one great season of Yellowjackets already released and a second season coming later this month, we now know how many total seasons we can expect from this show. Co-creator Ahsley Lyle recently revealed in an interview with EW that they have a five-season plan and they are on track to deliver the full story they wanted to tell.
When talking about the full plan that they initially pitched, they explained why they feel five seasons is the right stopping point. Lyle shared:
"The original plan was about five seasons, and we feel like we're still on track for that. There's always room for things. We don't really see this as being more than a five-season show. I think that there are shows that can go forever, but I think that when you're telling such a deeply serialized story and it's about these characters' lives, you want to reach a satisfying conclusion and not just drag things out forever. This isn't really one of those setup shows where it can go anywhere. So far, we've been really on track. Season 2 is largely what we always planned, but you do make a lot of discoveries along the way and so it's always a little bit surprising."
Co-creator Bart Nickerson goes on to talk about how the process works in coming up with the story and journey of these characters and how nothing is set in stone. They are just going with the flow of what feels right as they develop the series.
"In terms of some of the major places that we wanted to land or move the story to, that is happening, but a lot of the dynamics and what it means to the characters are different than I necessarily thought they would be. Some of the major sign posts are still happening, they're just happening in different ways, which I kind of feel like is perfect for keeping the experience alive and vital on our side. We take a lot of excitement from the discovery portion. It's a big part of our process and the thing that we enjoy the most about doing this. We feel like the architecture that we started with is still holding up, but all the rooms are turning out pretty different in this exciting way."
The creators went on to use the characters of Jeff (Warren Cole) and Callie (Sarah Desjardins) as an example, and Shauna's (Melanie Lynskey) husband and daughter, who will play a bigger role in Season 2 because “they were so good in Season 1.”
Yellowjackets is the saga of “a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players who become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to savage clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later, proving that the past is never really past and what began out in the wilderness is far from over.”
A big mystery is being built up with this series and it’s a show that easily hooks you and reels you into the madness. If you haven’t started watching it yet, this is one you’ve got to jump into. If you don’t want to take my word for it, the show has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The series also stars Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress, Ella Purnell, Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Sammi Hanratty, Steven Krueger, Warren Kole, and Juliette Lewis. Newcomers include Elijah Wood, as Walter "a new citizen detective”, Lauren Ambrose as the adult version of Van, who you can see photos of here, and Simone Kessell, who will be playing adult Lottie. Jason Ritter also joined the cast.
Yellowjackets season 2 will premiere on March 24, 2023.