Yellowjackets provides an intriguing mystery seeded out through its first two seasons. While a third season of Yellowjackets is releasing soon, how many more seasons of the survival drama can fans expect?
While Yellowjackets isn't based on a true story, its gripping tale about a girls' soccer team stranded in the Canadian wilderness has audiences hooked. The series plays out in two timelines with the story also jumping forward 25 years to reveal what happened to the adult survivors.
Season 1 of Yellowjackets was recently released on Netflix in the U.S. and introduced many questions that the series will hopefully answer in future seasons.
How Many Seasons of Yellowjackets Are Planned?
Yellowjackets' first two seasons are out in the wild, with a third one currently in production. But beyond this, do the creators have more in mind for the TV series?
Co-creator Ashley Lyle told Entertainment Weekly in an interview in 2023 that the plan was always to have "about five seasons:"
"The original plan was about five seasons, and we feel like we're still on track for that."
Lyle clarified her reasoning saying they want Yellowjackets to "reach a satisfying conclusion" and not "drag things out forever:"
"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.
As always, things in Hollywood can change the original plan for a story, but Lyle reassured that Yellowjackets is largely "on track" and that Season 2 was always what they'd envisioned:
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."
Yellowjackets' established five-season plan does not necessarily mean that it will receive five seasons. The series was initially developed during the late 2010s, a time when media companies were rapidly ramping up their streaming output due to the immensely high-value prospects of streaming services. Since the end of the 'Peak TV' era that reached its pinnacle in 2022, studios and streamers have become more budget-conscious and are greenlighting fewer projects overall. So fans shouldn't be shocked if Yellowjackets' 5-season arc gets condensed to 4 seasons.
At the time of writing, Yellowjackets has not been renewed for any more seasons past Season 3. However, Showtime did renew the series for Season 3 months ahead of its Season 2 premiere date so, by that logic, it's possible news of a Season 4 of Yellowjackets could come soon.
Where Could Yellowjackets' Story Go?
Yellowjackets has set up many interesting story threads in both its past and present timelines that could serve many more seasons of the show.
The most obvious question that needs to be answered is how the soccer team was rescued from the wilderness in 1995. It's established the team spends about a year and a half in the icy wilderness, which leaves plenty more timeline to cover in future seasons.
The series also needs to reveal how the team becomes the masked cult-like group shown in the opening scene of Season 1, which sees one girl (whose identity remains unknown) killed by a man-made trap in the snow. The 1995 timeline is starting to reveal how the extremes of the wilderness are changing the group, but they still have a ways to go before they become the savage survivors seen in the premiere.
Yellowjackets has also not been afraid to kill off characters throughout its two seasons, so one thing fans are desperate to know is which members of the group will survive by the time the series wraps.
The Yellowjackets co-creators also teased to Variety that the series may introduce a third timeline to the show, which would follow the teenagers in the immediate aftermath of their rescue. If this ends up coming to fruition it would definitely provide Yellowjackets with plenty more content to fill its five-season plan.
Yellowjackets Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix in the U.S. A Season 2 Netflix streaming date for Yellowjackets has not been announced but can be viewed on Paramount+.
