How ‘Yellowjackets’ season 2 promises to be more intense than the last

The highly anticipated second season of Showtime’s thriller drama series ‘Yellowjackets’ is coming out this month, and showrunner Jonathan Lisco teased that cannibalism won’t be the most shocking thing in the upcoming season.

The series explores how a high school girl’s soccer team survived after a plane crash left them stranded in the wilderness, and the dark secrets of their time in the forest that still haunts them as adults.

Amping up the intensity

Following the success of season 1, Lisco and fellow showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have truly amped their game to deliver a season that will be far more intense than season 1.

“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,” Lisco said of the new season in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

At the end of season 1, the girls have faced the death of a number of friends. Shauna, played by Sophie Nélisse as a teen and Melanie Lynskey as an adult, feels responsible for the death of her best friend Jackie as she also deals with pregnancy. Lottie, played by Courtney Eaton as a teen and by Simone Kessell in season 2, is set up to become a cult leader, driving much of the violence the girls live with.

“If season 1 was about our teen characters learning to adapt to their harsh surroundings, season 2 is where it all just really explodes,” Lisco said.

Season 2 will find the girls embracing insanity

Seasons 2 is set to fully explore the extent of the trauma the characters experienced during their time trapped in the forest. At the same time, the heavily inferred group insanity the girls experience while stranded also portrays a feeling of freedom that can’t be replicated outside that scenario, a feeling that is also explored in the series.

“Whether they’re ready to admit it, is the fact that they never felt, in some ways, more alive than when they were in the wilderness,” Lisco explains.

“Maybe they went crazy, but it was also a world free of the stereotypes and expectations that society had thrust upon them, specifically as young women. There was a freedom in that kind of madness. So they want to get in touch with their primordial selves.”

Rejoining the cast for season 2 are Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown as Taissa, Christina Ricci and Sammi Hanratty as Misty, Juliette Lewis and Sophie Thatcher as Natalie, Lauren Ambrose and Liv Hewson as Vanessa. Joining the show for season 2 is Elijah Wood as Walter, a citizen detective who challenges Misty.

When to watch ‘Yellowjackets’ seasons 2

Season 2 of ‘Yellowjackets’ is set to premiere Friday, March 24 streaming on Showtime and on Paramount+, Crave, Hulu, and Prime Video. It will then debut on-air on Sunday, March 26 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.