‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Production Stopped After Just 1 Day of Writing

Production on Yellowjackets Season 3 has stopped amid the Writers Guild of America’s ongoing strike. Yellowjackets co-creator Ashley Lyle confirmed on social media Tuesday that after “exactly one day in the [Yellowjackets] S3 writers room,” work on the popular Showtime original series has halted as hundreds of TV and film writers take to the picket line after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers failed. In the Tuesday statement, Lyle added that the first day back in the writers’ room “was amazing, and creatively invigorating, and so much fun, and I’m very excited to get back to it as soon as the [WGA] gets a fair deal.”

The production pause will not have an immediate impact on fans. The hit series has only aired five episodes of its nine-episode second season, meaning it will be some time regardless before Season 3 ever actually premiers. Following a brief break last week, Yellowjackets Season 2 is set to resume with Season 2, Episode 6, “Qui,” this week, the episode airing on the Showtime streaming service and on-demand on Friday, May 5 followed by its network debut on Sunday, May 7 at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes will continue to drop weekly, with the Season 2 finale, “Storytelling,” debuting on May 26 on streaming and on-demand and May 28 on-air. There has been no word on when Season 3 could potentially premiere, and it remains unclear if the strike will push the season back at all.

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Created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, Yellowjackets debuted to rave reviews in November 2021. The thriller series centers on a group of New Jersey high school soccer players, the Yellowjackets, who find themselves fighting for survival in the remote northern wilderness after their plane crashes on their way to Nationals. More than two decades later, in the present-day timeline, the surviving members of the crash and the events that unfolded after continue to deal with the tragedy and learn that the past can still shape the present.

Yellowjackets has proven to be a massive success for Showtime, and just a few months before Season 2 debuted in March 2023, Showtime renewed Yellowjackets for Season 3. Chris McCarthy, President and CEO of Showtime and Paramount Media Networks, said in a statement, “with Yellowjackets’ runaway success in season one and the pent-up anticipation for season two, we wanted to maximize the momentum by fast-tracking season three now. The show’s ambition is only exceeded by its execution, and I thank the incredibly creative team behind it, including Ashley, Bart, Jonathan, eOne, and the Showtime team, for turning this into such a success.”

Yellowjackets stars Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress, Sophie Nèlisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Pearl Amanda Dickson, Ella Purnell, Courtney Eaton, and more. Lynskey and Ricci earned Emmy nominations for their performances. The show was also nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, Oustanding Directing (Karyn Kasuma); and Outstanding Casting.