Season 2 of Showtime's 'Yellowjackets' could sting again sooner than expected with 2022 return

Showtime's Yellowjackets might be returning for its second season a lot sooner than expected. Speaking with Vulture about the breakout hit, the network's President of Entertainment, Gary Levine, revealed that the hope is to release new episodes before the end of this year. 

“We are working towards a premiere at the end of 2022,” he said. “We’d love to stay on an annual cycle. I think our audiences deserve that, and I also think that when you have a show that has this kind of a momentum, you don’t want to let it dissolve."

Partly inspired by William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the series (co-created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson) centers around a group of teenage girls who turn savage after surviving a plane crash in the late 1990s. The show embraces a dual narrative, catching up with the women in the present day and exploring how their depravity in the wilderness has affected their adult lives.

Showtime renewed the project for a sophomore outing on Dec. 16, one month before the Season 1 finale. "In terms of acclaim, in terms of buzz — no pun intended — and in terms of hard numbers, this show has just exploded," Levine told Deadline at the time. "For it to be embraced as quickly and as deeply as it was by both audiences and critics alike, that’s a little like catching lightning in a bottle — you can never anticipate that but boy, it’s awfully sweet when it rarely happens."

While more seasons have yet to be ordered, the executive is extremely confident that Yellowjackets has what it takes to go the distance in terms of small screen longevity. Showtime is no stranger to long-running titles, having produced such pop culture touchstones as Dexter, Billions, Ray Donavan, Penny Dreadful, Shameless, and Homeland. “For the last few years, we have been really stepping up our development in the hopes of creating the next generation of hits,” Levine explained to Vulture.

He continued: “The [Yellowjackets] finale is a very satisfying finale, but it leaves lots of runway. Yes, the show is sort of high concept, but it is also a character piece about the dynamics between characters when they’re tested, both in the wilderness and in adulthood. You can write those kinds of dynamics forever. This is not reliant upon, ‘What’s the answer to the secret?’ This has many secrets, many surprises, and a real human dimension that has longevity built into it.”

All 10 episodes of Yellowjackets' debut season are now available to stream on the Showtime website (a subscription is required). Melanie Lynskey (Don't Look Up), Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers), Christina Ricci (The Addams Family), and Tawny Cypress (Unforgettable) make up the central cast.