‘Yellowjackets’ star Sophie Nélisse forecasts ‘feral and intense’ third season

TORONTO — “Yellowjackets” star Sophie Nélisse expects the intensity of her hit survival drama to dial up in Season 3. 

The Montreal-based actor says filming will begin in May and that the cast has been kept in the dark about the plot. 

But she hopes her teen character Shauna Shipman lets her emotions explode after a series of tragedies left her despondent at the end of Season 2.

“I want to see her go full-on mean and aggressive. I think she’s been kind of a people pleaser, and I want her now, because of everything that she’s been through, to just have no empathy anymore. Nothing will get in her way,” Nélisse says in a video call while promoting her upcoming film “Irena’s Vow.”

“I think she goes ice cold. I think she is done with sadness and now she’s just angry. Now she has no mercy.”

The B.C.-shot drama centres on members of a New Jersey high school girls’ soccer team who find themselves stranded in the Ontario wilderness after a plane crash. The Showtime series, streaming on Crave, unfolds across two timelines: one in the ’90s, when the girls must find a way to survive, and another in the present day, when some of the survivors wrestle with repercussions of the ordeal.

The following contains spoilers for the first two seasons.

In the first season, Shauna’s pregnancy by her best friend’s boyfriend caused a deep divide between the two girls and ends in tragedy.

Season 2 ends with the team narrowly escaping a fire in the cabin where they’ve taken up residence.

“I think it’s going to be feral and intense and a crazy ride this next season,” Nélisse predicts.

The third season of “Yellowjackets” was delayed due to the Hollywood writers and actors strikes that postponed production for most scripted series.

Nélisse says the holdup has been “a curse and a blessing.”

“I think writers are often rushed into writing new episodes, and especially on ‘Yellowjackets,’ we’re so proud of everything we’ve accomplished so far. We want to keep delivering good content and we want to make the fans happy, but we also want to bring a lot of depth and a lot of layers to these characters,” she says.

“I think it just gave them more time to create even more powerful storylines.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2024.

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press