If you love the good dose of weird that Yellowjackets brings in every episode, get ready to see more from the series’ creators. Showtime announced today that showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have signed an overall deal with the network, which extends their relationship with the house of other acclaimed titles such as Billions and The Chi.
If you thought that the deal will make Lyle and Nickerson into busy bees who’ll eventually step away from the helm of Yellowjackets, you can relax: the deal secures that the Emmy nominees continue to showrun the internationally acclaimed series alongside fellow writer and showrunner Jonathan Lisco (Animal Kingdom). Now, however, the duo will also oversee and develop new projects exclusively for Showtime.
The announcement was made by President of Entertainment at Showtime Networks Gary Levine, who made a tongue-in-cheek reference to Yellowjackets’ bizarre story and praised the team of creators in an official statement:
“Ashley and Bart are not only great writers, but they are also wildly original thinkers and creators. I’m not sure I would want to go camping with them, but I sure as hell love working with them, and I’m thrilled they will be working at Showtime for years to come.”
In addition, Lyle and Nickerson thanked the support from Showtime and revealed their excitement to work on future projects:
“We are beyond grateful for Showtime’s partnership, advocacy, and vision throughout this whole process. David Nevins, Gary Levine, Jana Winograde, Amy Israel, Dave Binegar, and the whole team believed in the potential of Yellowjackets and have been tenaciously supportive of us from the very beginning. We couldn’t imagine a better place to have landed (pun intended) and are thrilled to be continuing this journey with them. Buzz buzz buzz.”
Yellowjackets follows two distinct timelines: A mid-nineties plane crash that forced a whole teenage-girl soccer team to survive in the wilderness, and the present-day life of the survivors, who keep dark secrets of what happened during the traumatic incident. According to Showtime, the series averaged over 5 million weekly viewers across platforms in Season 1, and was the second-most streamed series in Showtime history. Season 2 is currently in early production, and is set to start filming in Vancouver next week.
The cast features Melanie Lynskey (Castle Rock), Juliette Lewis (The Hateful Eight), Christina Ricci (Z: The Beginning of Everything), Tawny Cypress (Unforgettable), Ella Purnell (Sweetbitter), Samantha Hanratty (Shameless), Sophie Thatcher (Prospect), Sophie Nélisse (The Book Thief), Steven Krueger (The Originals), and Warren Kole (Shades of Blue). New high profile cast members include Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings trilogy), Lauren Ambrose (Servant), and Simone Kessell (Obi-Wan Kenobi).
Showtime is yet to reveal a release date for Season 2 of Yellowjackets, but the network is reportedly eyeing an early 2023 premiere window.
You can watch Collider's interview with Ricci below: