Season 3 of Yellowjackets ended on April 11, 2025, wrapping up an installment of death, gore, and mind-blowing revelations. The third season of Showtime's mystery-thriller series about a feral soccer team stranded in the wilderness had the highest body count so far, as the survivors turned against each other in the present day and reconnected to the outside world for the first time in the past.
Now that the season 3 finale has wrapped up some series-long mysteries (and introduced an endgame for one of the show's timelines), it's time to gather the clues of what may be in store once a renewal decision confirms the series' fate. Below, read on for everything we know about a possible Yellowjackets season 4 so far.
Is 'Yellowjackets' renewed for season 4?
Showtime and Paramount+ have not yet revealed whether Yellowjackets will return for a fourth season. Based on viewing numbers, renewal odds look good. In March 2025, halfway through season 3, Deadline reported that the show was up 39 percent in viewership on streaming (even before counting the linear viewers on Showtime's cable channel).
Also, showrunners Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, and Jonathan Lisco have admitted they need at least one more season to complete the series's story. While speaking to the Los Angeles Times after season 3, Nickerson told the outlet, "We are kind of banking on another season. So, sorry, if we do get cancelled; if we pulled a total My So-Called Life where we’re just ending. But there are worse things than to go down in history as another My So-Called Life."
In addition to the cliffhangers that the season 3 finale left us with, the co-creators have been vocal throughout the show's run about their plans for a projected five-season run.
"The original plan was about five seasons, and we feel like we're still on track for that," Lyle told Entertainment Weekly in March 2023. "This isn't really one of those setup shows where it can go anywhere. So far, we've been really on track. Season 2 is largely what we always planned, but you do make a lot of discoveries along the way and so it's always a little bit surprising."
When would 'Yellowjackets' season 4 come out?
Without the official renewal, the only info we have to estimate a release date is when the previous installments came out. So far, season 1 of Yellowjackets debuted in November 2021, season 2 premiered in March 2023, and season 3 was first released in February 2025. Since season 3 was delayed by the 2023 WGA and SAG strikes, there's a good chance that the hiatus until season 4 could be closer to the wait between seasons 1 and 2. Right now, it seems like we may be eyeing late 2026 as the absolute latest for new episodes to arrive.
Who in the 'Yellowjackets' cast will return for season 4?
After season 3's body count, the main cast members most likely to return in season 4 include Melanie Lynskey (Shauna), Sophie Nélisse (teen Shauna), Sophie Thatcher (teen Natalie), Tawny Cypress (Taissa), Jasmin Savoy Brown (teen Taissa), Christina Ricci (Misty), Samantha Hanratty (teen Misty), Courtney Eaton (teen Lottie), Liv Hewson (teen Van), Jenna Burgess (teen Melissa), Nia Sondaya (teen Akilah), and Kevin Alves (Travis). Warren Cole (Jeff) and Sarah Desjardins (Callie) should also return to the present timeline.
One of season 3's new additions, Ashley Sutton (Hannah), is also expected to return after her cliffhanger fate in the season 3 finale. Though other new major cast member Hilary Swank (adult Melissa) is more up in the air, the Oscar winner has said she would be open to return.
What will 'Yellowjackets' season 4 be about?
Spoilers for the Yellowjackets season 3 finale ahead. Season 3 already brought some major status-quo shifts to the series, but Yellowjackets season 4 seems poised to bring the younger cast out of the wilderness. The April 11 finale ends with Natalie making contact with civilization, thanks to the satellite phone from the frog researchers's campsite and the plane transponder Misty broke in the series premiere. In a Deadline interview published after season 3 aired, Nickerson confirmed that the girls are set to be rescued—but it won't be in the season 4 premiere.
"Just to clarify, not to say that we’re gonna get there very soon," the co-creator said. "But we’ve always said that we do think that there is a portion of the story that wants to be told upon their return, we just don’t know when we’re gonna get there."
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Lyle added that the writers' plan was always to follow the girls through their difficult readjustment to the real world.
"It’s something that we’ve talked about in the writers’ room and, from the very beginning, Bart and I knew that was a piece of the story we wanted to eventually explore," she told the outlet "These girls have changed remarkably, for better or for worse, in their time out there, especially because of their age. They’re so malleable to begin with and they’ve become very different people. And to see those people readjust to a world that is almost—I wouldn’t say insignificant to them; it’s obviously very significant—foreign to them now in a way that we think would be really ripe for storytelling and to dig deeper into their characters."
