EXCLUSIVE: Paramount+ With Showtime‘s Yellowjackets has added Hilary Swank to its Season 3 cast. The two-time Oscar winner will be a recurring guest star on the upcoming season, which is currently filming in Vancouver. I hear there is an option for her to become a series regular should the hit series get a fourth season.
Created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, Yellowjackets is the saga of a team of talented high school girls soccer players who become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to savage clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later, proving that the past is never really past and what began out in the wilderness is far from over.
Details about Swank’s character, which will be introduced later in the season, have not been revealed. Based on the setup of the show, she could conceivably be playing the contemporary, adult version of a teen on the soccer team whose story has not been fully explored yet.
The series already has big names playing the circa 2021 characters, including series regulars Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci, Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell as well as Juliette Lewis who departed after two seasons. Their younger counterparts are played by Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Liv Hewson and Courtney Eaton in the 1996 era.
Delayed by the strikes, Season 3 of Yellowjackets, which also features Joe McHale as a guest star, will premiere on Showtime next year. Meanwhile, Season 1 of the series, which mixes survival epic, psychological horror story and coming-of-age drama, will become available on Netflix on Oct. 1, exposing the show to new audiences. (All existing seasons of Yellowjackets remain on the series’ main streaming home, Paramount+).
Yellowjackets is executive produced by Lyle, Nickerson and fellow showrunner Jonathan Lisco. Drew Comins of Creative Engine also serves as executive producer along with Jeff Byrd, Sarah L. Thompson, Ameni Rozsa and Brad Van Arragon. Produced by Lionsgate Television, Yellowjackets premiered in 2021 and has been well received, scoring 10 Emmy Award nominations over its first two seasons, including two Outstanding Drama Series noms.
Swank, Oscar winner for Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby, recently starred in Lionsgate’s Ordinary Angels alongside Alan Ritchson. In TV, she recently headlined ABC’s Alaska Daily, earning a Golden Globe nomination. Swank is repped by WME, Management 360 and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
