‘Yellowjackets’ Star Samantha Hanratty Warns of High Death Toll in Season 3

Just as Yellowjackets makes its long-awaited return to TV, the show’s cast is warning audiences not to get too emotionally attached to any one character, as it’s a strong possibility they might meet their demise in season three.

Both of the thriller’s previous seasons brought shocking deaths, with — spoiler! — Jackie (Ella Purnell) in season one and adult Natalie (Juliette Lewis) in season two. But Samantha Hanratty, who stars as teen Misty, says creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson upped the ante on the loss of life this go ‘round.

“Not just one death, not just two deaths — the death toll here is not good,” Hanratty told The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet for the season three premiere of the Showtime series in Los Angeles on Thursday. “You guys are not going to be well.”

Courtney Eaton, who stars as teen Lottie, similarly just told THR in a recent interview that a season three death had them “bawling her eyes out.”

Meanwhile, episode one of season three picks up with adult Van (Lauren Ambrose) now staying with Taissa (Tawney Cypress) amid her battle with cancer and the latter’s separation from her wife, but Ambrose played coy about any sort of final destination for her character, mortally or romantically.

“Taissa and Van definitely go bananas this season; we filmed some very strange things,” said Ambrose. “Tawny is such a beautiful actor; we just found our way together.”

Cypress gave an equally cryptic answer when asked about Taissa’s adult journey. “I think you’re going to come to find that you’ve been watching another Tai a lot more than you thought,” she said.

Both actresses were mum on what the addition of Hilary Swank to the cast might mean for the storyline, Ambrose simply saying, “Hilary Swank is one of the great actors. I love her work so much and it’s very, very cool that she decided to come and be a part of the storytelling.”

The cast of #Yellowjackets pose together on the carpet at the season 3 premiere pic.twitter.com/CGRS3uS0Fw

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 14, 2025

One character whose state isn’t up for interpretation is young Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), who’s reeling from the loss of her best friend Jackie and her baby as the season starts.

“She’s very mad,” Nélisse told THR. “I think she’s just undergone so much loss and grief and I think it’s too much for her to bear on her shoulders, so she conveys all of that into anger and projects it onto all of the other people in the group.”

Nélisse, on the other hand, was thrilled to no longer have the strenuous task of Shauna fighting for survival in the wilderness as an expectant mother. “I was so excited. It was really fun because it was a completely different experience getting to have the baby bump and it felt so real, like I felt my hands kind of tend to go to my belly just naturally. But it was very cumbersome and very annoying to go to the bathroom and it took a lot of time between setups so I’m very happy to be able to move a little bit more freely,” she said of filming season three.

Jasmin Savoy Brown, who stars as teen Taissa, also felt shooting this latest season was less emotionally and physically taxing than the last. “It actually wasn’t so bad because I was out here taking care of my damn self,” she told us. “I was finally on Lexapro. I was exercising, I brought my cats, I did some meditation, so I was fine.”

As for the characters, she added, “I think all of the girls are in a better place. The sun is out, they’re getting their vitamin D. I know how that feels. As soon as winter’s over, I’m like, ‘Wait, I feel better.’ But I think that Taissa has a hard time not having power. She’s not the most powerful person in the group at this time and she’s acting like that doesn’t bother her, but I think it does.”

Having a season of winter and now spring has fans tallying up the length of time they’ll have with the popular series which has already declared that the Yellowjackets soccer team spent a total of 19 months in the wilderness before they were rescued. As such, Lyle and Nickerson do intend to bring the series to a carefully crafted end one day.

“We love procedurals, but [Yellowjackets] doesn’t have that sort of engine where you can restart and you can bring in new characters like a Grey’s Anatomy,” said Lyle. “We’re telling what happened to these people and I think that that is a finite story. I do think we have more story to tell, but this is not a show that’s going to go on forever.”

These comments come after the married co-creators opened up to THR about their longterm vision (including that mysterious bonus episode) and what to expect in season three. “It’s not a lighter season. I do think it’s a more fun season. Part of that was by design. It’s spring [when season three opens in the wilderness.] There’s a celebratory nature to it. But there’s a very strong underlying darkness to what they’re doing,” said Lyle of how the premiere sets the tone for the season.

Yellowjackets season three debuts Friday on streaming and on demand for Paramount+ subscribers with the Paramount+ with Showtime Plan, ahead of its on-air debut Sunday. The season then releases new episodes weekly.