As will almost certainly happen with many fan-favorite TV shows, Showtime’s hit series Yellowjackets is already being impacted by the Writer’s Guild of America strike. The WGA authorized membership to strike for a new deal with AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) at 12:01 AM today, halting work on the next season of the show. Speaking with The AP in an interview on the picket lines outside the Netflix offices in Los Angeles, series co-creator Bart Nickerson confirmed that work on Yellowjackets season 3 had begun and had also stopped because of the strike. As a result, the new season would almost certainly be delayed.
“Well it’s definitely gonna delay it,” Nickerson revealed. “We had actually started the first day of the [writers] room on a Monday, and so obviously we left the room and stopped kind of working on [Yellowjackets] Season 3. So it’s definitely going to delay it for as long as the strike lasts.”
Nickerson’s partner and co-creator on the series Ashley Lyle echoed the sentiment, tweeting: “Well, we had exactly one day in the #YellowJackets S3 writers’ room. It was amazing, and creatively invigorating, and so much fun, and I’m very excited to get back to it as soon as the #WGA gets a fair deal. #1u #unionstrong ??”
“Yellowjackets” co-creator Bart Nickerson says the third season of the hit Showtime series will be delayed by the Hollywood writers strike.
Nickerson joined striking screenwriters on picket lines outside Netflix offices in LA. https://t.co/qoBPUyQi9L pic.twitter.com/Qn58iJs62l
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 3, 2023
Yellowjackets stars two distinct casts with multiple actors playing the same character across two timelines; this includes: Melanie Lynskey and Sophie N?lisse as Shauna, Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown as Taissa, Christina Ricci and Sammi Hanratty as Misty, Juliette Lewis and Sophie Thatcher as Natalie, Lauren Ambrose and Liv Hewson as Van, and Simone Kessell and Courtney Eaton as Lottie. The show also features Steven Krueger as Coach Ben, Warren Kole as Jeff, and Kevin Alves as Travis.
In season two, two months have passed since Shauna gave Jackie the cold shoulder – to disastrous results. In the face of their deepening hunger and fear, the tension among our Yellowjackets has only grown worse. The harsh conditions of winter are intensifying by the day, and the psyches of our survivors are deteriorating just as fast. Threatened by the darkness of the wilderness – and the haunting memories of it in the present – our former state champs will be forced to make impossible decisions. As they confront the horrible truth of what survival entails, the real nightmare for each of them will be to figure out who they are – and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to stay alive.
Yellowjackets debuts new episodes on Showtime’s streaming app every Friday, and airs them on the linear cable channel on Sundays. Only four episodes remain in the show’s second season.