Yellowjackets Season 3 Now Facing A Major Delay?
Yellowjackets Season 3 is on hold due to the Writers' Strike.
Showtime’s Yellowjackets is in it the midst of its second season and was already renewed for a third season last year, but now it’s looking like Yellowjackets Season 3 could face some delays. Ashley Lyle, the co-creator of the show with Bart Nickerson, recently took to Twitter to announce that the team had a productive first day in the writer’s room, but they wouldn’t be returning until the Writer’s Guild of America strike ended.
This certainly isn’t a surprising announcement, as the Yellowjackets Season 3 writers are hardly the only writers in Hollywood on strike. When a WGA strike happens, writing on essentially all shows is shut down. The late-night shows are typically the first to be affected, with schedules for the fall TV season and streaming shows following close behind.
Weeks of contract negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers broke down after terms couldn’t be reached on several fronts — including AI in the industry, minimum writer salaries, and more. The WGA doesn’t go on strike often, but when they do, it majorly shakes up the industry. The Yellowjackets Season 3 writer’s room is just part of over 11,500 members who will be stepping behind the picket lines.
According to the WGA strike rules, writers can’t perform any writing roles for the studios, but they can still arrive for work to take on other duties like producing and directing. This means some shows can still be worked on in those areas, but many shows have writers on set to consult on scenes, so the waters can get pretty murky. As for Yellowjackets Season 3, they were only in the writer’s room for one day before the strike began, so there won’t be any forward momentum on that show’s production until the strike is over.
As for when the strike might end, it could be months. The last WGA strike ended up costing Hollywood an estimated $2 billion (via Reuters), and this strike could have similar repercussions if the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers doesn’t play ball. Yellowjackets Season 3 is already being delayed as far as planned writing sessions go, but it’s unclear if it would affect the show’s original planned air date for the third season.
The second season of Yellowjacks started airing in March, so this definitely gives Yellowjackets Season 3 a little more breathing room than the shows that are trying to hit a fall or winter release window. Yellowjackets also have the benefit of not announcing an official release date for the third season, so they’re not necessarily beholden to any specific timeline at this point. If the strike is wrapped up quickly and the writers get the terms they deserve, then it’s possible that the season won’t see any notable production delays.
While the release date of Yellowjackets Season 3 is up in the air right now, fans can still enjoy new episodes of the show on a weekly basis for now. There are four episodes remaining of the second season, with the next episode premiering on May 7. The season will continue to air weekly and stars Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Liv Hewson, Courtney Eaton, Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Lauren Ambrose, and Simone Kessell.
