Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank has boarded the cast of Yellowjackets, and will be featured in a recurring guest role in Season 3, with the door wide open for her to become a series regular should it stretch any further. Premiering on Showtime in 2021, Yellowjackets flips back and forth between the past and present to tell the story of a high school girls’ soccer team that becomes stranded in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash, and how their Lord of the Flies-like journey to survival impacts them later in life.
Per Deadline, Swank’s role remains a mystery for now, but she will join returning cast members Christina Ricci, Lauren Ambrose, Melanie Lynskey, Simone Kessell, and Tawny Cypress, as well as newcomer Joel McHale, who has also signed on to appear in Season 3 of Yellowjackets in an undisclosed guest role. Created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, the thriller has been met with high praise from critics thus far, with Season 1 certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% rating, and Season 2 not far behind at 93%. It’s thus far earned more than 65 award nominations from various organizations (including seven Primetime Emmy nods), winning a total of 12.
What Hilary Swank’s Addition to Yellowjackets Means for Season 3
Taking a cue from such shows as LOST, Yellowjackets focuses on a core group of characters, while at the same time occasionally introducing new faces to further expand upon its lore, and showcase how the effects of the plane crash impacted different members of the New Jersey soccer team. The addition of Hilary Swank to the series could mean that we’ll get to see things from someone else’s perspective – possibly a member of the team who has yet to be explored, which breaks things wide open in terms of the overall plot of the series.
Of course, she could also be someone whom Lottie (Simone Kessell) meets after potentially being committed following the explosive events at the end of Season 2, but that’s all speculation at this point, and we won’t know for sure until Yellowjackets makes its triumphant return next year. No specific release date has been given just yet, as the series is currently still filming its junior season in Vancouver.
All that being said, those who have been interested in checking out Yellowjackets but don’t have a Paramount+ with Showtime subscription have another option next month to see what all the hype is about. All 10 episodes of Season 1 will hit Netflix on October 1, dangling a carrot that could lead more subscribers to the former, as people eager to see what happens next sign up for the service. It’s a brilliant strategy that benefits both streaming platforms, and may lead to Season 3 of Yellowjackets being the most talked about season yet. The addition of Swank is sure to put more eyeballs on it, but even more so than that, we just can’t wait to see where Lyle and Nickerson take us next on what has undoubtedly been a surreal and captivating journey thus far.
Seasons 1 and 2 of
Yellowjackets
are now streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime.