'Yellowjackets' Season 4: Everything We Know

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 for the soccer team next across both timelines. Below, read on for everything we know about a possible Yellowjackets season 4 so far.

Is 'Yellowjackets' renewed for season 4?

Yes! Paramount+ with Showtime announced the good news on May 20, 2025, a little over a month after the season 3 finale. With the renewal announcement came the official stats on the prior season; per the streamer, season 3 was Yellowjackets' most-watched season yet, and the finale is now the most-streamed episode in the show's history.

"Yellowjackets has become a cultural juggernaut; with season 3 shattering all previous records, we are thrilled to announce its renewal for a season four on Paramount+," said Chris McCarthy, co-CEO of Paramount Global and President of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios. "Ashley and Bart have masterfully crafted an utterly singular, genre-defying phenomenon: a perfect alchemy of psychological horror, survival thriller, and coming-of-age drama that continues to captivate audiences worldwide, brought to life by our extraordinarily talented and beloved cast."

Even before renewal, showrunners Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, and Jonathan Lisco expressed they needed 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."

Thankfully, we now know that the show hasn't been cancelled.

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."

We'll have to wait and see if season 4 is the final season or if there's more to come.

When will 'Yellowjackets' season 4 come out?

So far, 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. With the show being renewed in May 2025, we may be eyeing late 2026 as the latest for new episodes to premiere.

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."