At least we won't have to wait 25 years to see more of our favorite cannibalistic soccer team.
E! News can confirm that Yellowjackets season two is officially happening at Showtime, and while there's no release date yet, we are already anticipating the sting of a second installment. What happened to Shauna's baby? Just how far will Lottie's cult go to hunt (or save?) the team? And how the heck do they all get rescued?!
After a truly shocking finale last night on Jan. 16, we checked in with stars Melanie Lynskey, Samantha Hanratty and Sophie Thatcher to break down everything we can look forward to when Yellowjackets returns.
Will Shauna get caught for Adam's murder?
In case you got distracted by everything else that was going on (a Senate race! beheading a dog! bleeding out a bear!), let's remind you of another present-day murder: Shauna (Lynskey) stabbed her lover Adam (Peter Gadiot) and then enlisted Misty (Christina Ricci), Natalie (Juliette Lewis) and Taissa (Tawny Cypress) to help dispose of the body.
While star Gadiot exclusively told E! News that he believes Adam was a "red herring" to throw viewers off, we're certain that Adam will be back—at least as a major inconvenience to adult Shauna, who is already haunted by the ghost of her former bestie Jackie (Ella Purnell).
"The tragic thing about it to me is that Shauna doubts herself," Lynskey explained, pointing out that Shauna grapples with insecurity in both of her romantic relationships. "She has all this confidence even though the world is telling her 'you're too old' or 'you're not pretty enough.' She's like, 'Actually, here's this young, interesting, handsome person that's interested in me, and I believe that he is.' She's really in this relationship and I don't think she has a lot of doubt until people come in and start saying, 'Well…'"
Even Shauna's teen daughter (second daughter?! We're still dying to know what happens to her baby in the woods...) puts down Shauna. "Her daughter's like, 'He couldn't possibly be into you,' which opens an internal can of worms about her self-worth, which Shauna's never had a lot of," Lynskey continued. "I kind of wanted the tragedy to be that she's killed someone who could potentially be a great love for her."
Can we expect more high school flashbacks?
Now that the mystery of what happened to Jackie is solved, is there a purpose to see more '90s flashbacks, pre-crash? Previous flashbacks gave more insight into Shauna and Jackie's friendship, plus how young Natalie (Thatcher) was already a survivor before taking charge in the wilderness. Oh, and apparently middle school prank calls led teen Misty (Hanratty) to be a murderous sociopath.
"I hope that we get to kind of understand more about how Misty got her start in all of this," Hanratty told E! News. Lest we forget that Misty is now Team Lottie in the forest, helping with creepy sacrifices and praying to dark spirits.
But Hanratty approached playing Misty with empathy, saying, "I think of her almost as like a friend, at this point—a friend that should definitely go to therapy," Hanratty joked. "But I can definitely relate to her needing people to like her and being worried about what people think."
And Misty only seems to care what one special someone thinks...
Does Misty eventually kill Coach Ben?
Misty's crush turned captive, Coach Ben (Steven Krueger), has seeming dodged death's door by playing along with Misty's fantasies—for fear of being poisoned...again. Yet after Ben confessed to Misty that he's actually gay and has a boyfriend back home, it's clear that Misty won't take his deception lightly.
"It makes me so much more excited for season two because when Misty finds out, we can see on her face what she's thinking," Hanratty revealed. "We haven't really gotten to know how it's going to play out now that she knows he's been lying to her. But when she finds out, she's also tripping and she's a bit out of it as well. I'm very excited to see where things go once she's in a sound mind—if she ever can be..."
Hanratty also gushed that working with Krueger led to her favorite scene: Misty singing to Coach Ben as he defecated in the woods. "We got to do these ridiculous things but we both took the scene so seriously," she remembered. "No matter how out there Misty is, I think it makes it so much better when you know when she doesn't think that she's that way at all."
What's next for Natalie and Travis?
After Travis (Kevin Alves) cheated on Natalie (Thatcher) with Jackie, the two twisted lovebirds did find their way back to each other—but neither knows that Jackie froze to death while they were away. We're aware that the entity in the forest demands that Travis and Natalie belong to each other, but is that best for Natalie?
"She got a little distracted with Travis, which also goes in line with her addictive personality," Thatcher reflected. "She finds this person and can't let go of him. It becomes this obsession."
Yet Natalie's role as the hunter-gatherer gets side-tracked due to their budding romance. "I think she loses her purpose when things with Travis get all complicated, and just really depressing, honestly, but it's real," Thatcher noted. "And it was an interesting take on my character for her to be the one that saves Travis [during the stag hunt]."
Off-screen, co-stars Thatcher and Alves similarly bonded.
"Kevin is just one of the nicest guys ever," Thatcher gushed, with Hanratty agreeing. "He always wants to talk through the characters and is really there to help build my confidence, too."
Will Misty and Natalie become friends?
We already know that adult Misty idolizes Nat, but the two haven't had much time together in the 1996 wilderness to strike up a friendship. "I really hope [we get more scenes together]," Thatcher said, citing the hilarious dynamic in a "subtle moment" when Misty tries to find common ground with Natalie over their "secret boyfriends" earlier in the season.
"They are absolute polar opposites, and for some of that to get developed next season would be really fun," Thatcher explained. "I also just want more scenes with the girls. They've been really putting me with the boys, which is great and that's fine, but I want it to go back to the core friend group."
Hanratty concluded, "[The finale] just really just sets up this whole new world for season two."
When does Natalie "lose" her purpose?
In the opening episode of the season, an adult Natalie reflects on losing her "purpose" at the rehab center. According to Thatcher, that grounding purpose was providing for her teammates as the "huntress"....and that does not mean being the off-the-rails Antler Queen.
"It makes sense why she would stay the most sane and I don't know what's in for season two, but I really hope they keep to her being the huntress because I really love the power that gives her," Thatcher stated. "Yes she's the sane one right now, but I think in order for the trajectory to make sense, with how she transforms into modern day Natalie, I want to see more of that and more of her breaking points. I think that's bound to happen next season."
Will season two show their rescue?
Shauna said that Natalie is the one to thank for getting out of the wilderness, and we also know that adult Travis left a message that Nat "was right," presumably about Lottie's cult. So will we see the remainder of the 19 months of the Yellowjackets' survival in season two?
"They're planning on five seasons, so I have no idea how pacing wise is going to work out," Thatcher revealed. "I was really happy with how they're starting to deal with something slightly...not cannibalistic but it's borderline. It's getting to that mental shift where you're starting to lose perspective."
What is the cast up to in the meantime?
Turns out being stranded in the woods together makes for some really great bonding time behind the scenes!
"We are so close," Lynskey gushed. "Juliette and I leave Marco Polos for each other every other day, just catching up on our lives, my daughter saying hi. We all text each other all the time. We're all looking at pictures of Christina's baby. Tawny and I are keeping in touch all the time. We got very, very close."
She added, "It feels sisterly. And I think we made the decision it was important to know each other as deeply as possible because you would know people like that if you were stranded with them for 19 months. You would know the good and the bad. I'm just so grateful that I like them so much because it could have been rough, but it was great."
Thatcher noted that no matter the fate of their characters, the IRL Yellowjackets have each others' backs.
"It's a hard show and we've endured a lot together," Thatcher said. "It just kind of created this instant bond with everybody where we really were each other's family. Having the stability of a bunch of people that all support you and love you is going to continue—even if they're killed off or whatever."
Yellowjackets season one is available to stream on Showtime.