Contains possible spoilers for “Yellowjackets” Season 3

If you had a ghost of a hope that Natalie Scatorccio (Juliette Lewis) somehow secretly survived being accidentally injected with phenobarbital by her frenemy Misty Quigley (Christina Ricci) during the Season 2 finale of “Yellowjackets,” these fresh portraits promoting the show’s third season confirm it was no misdirection. The act, which was foreshadowed in Season 1, has culminated in a photo shoot for “Vanity Fair.” In this Season 3 preview, all of the rest of the show’s leads pose with the actresses who play them as teens. But Sophie Thatcher poses alone, sans Lewis.

first look at sophie thatcher as natalie for yellowjackets s3 pic.twitter.com/Q4h78gH6be

— sophie thatcher thinker 💭 (@soapythinker) October 31, 2024

As posted by Sophie Thatcher Thinker from the exclusive first look now available on Paramount’s press website, one can see Thatcher posed pensively as Nat in the images. But series co-creator and co-producer Ashley Lyle told Vanity Fair that there’s a more universal meaning to those images — and that things might not be too hopeless for Nat fans.

“We all have a future self who has died, and we don’t know how that happened and we don’t know why it happened — we don’t know when it’s going to happen,” said Lyle. “But that doesn’t make who we are now any less vital. In our minds, that is also Natalie’s story. She has a lot of life to live and a lot of story to tell.” That leaves an interesting narrative door open that hints there’s more in store for Nat than meets the eye. But something else is apparently on the minds of the show’s writers.

Ashley Lyle noted to Vanity Fair that the show’s plans for Natalie aren’t affected by the adult Nat’s death; the show has 25 years of time to play with between its current timeline and the crash timeline. Juliette Lewis herself didn’t rule out the notion of returning to the show at some point as well. The picture both confirms and denies what the future may hold for Nat. Incidentally, the merging of the past and current selves of the “Yellowjacket” team is a definite goal for Season 3, Lyle told Vanity Fair. “Some of it is really character-based; some of it is more literal,” she explained.

“I think back to the person I was when I was 17 years old, and I don’t feel that different,” added Lyle. “How do you change while you are in your core, in your essence, the same person you always were? How much are you hiding that, and how long are you able to do that, is a question that we’re playing with this season,” Lyle added. 

Apparently there are some things the team can’t outrun, whether it be their core personality traits or what they did when they were in the woods. Who they are is partially set in stone before the crash, and the accident will only add to that sense of fatalism. But time will tell if that observation proves true when “Yellowjackets” debuts sometime in 2025, complete with a bonus episode that Lyle confirmed last year.