Melanie Lynskey Says Yellowjackets Writers Shared Season 3 Spoilers with Her: ‘It Sounds So Exciting’ (Exclusive)

The Emmy-nominated actress plays Shauna on the Showtime survivalist drama

The Yellowjackets season 2 finale aired nearly one year ago but season 3 is in the works — and star Melanie Lynskey has an idea of how things might play out.

“I had a talk with the writers and they went over the season with me and they gave me a couple of huge spoilers,” Lynskey, 46, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I don’t know what they’re thinking. I’m sure they’re just sitting there going, ‘Why did we tell Melanie anything?’ But I’m not going to say them. I’m going to keep it to myself. But gosh, it sounds so exciting!”

At the end of the season 2 finale, the teenagers awaken to find their cabin set ablaze, presumably by Ben (Steven Krueger), and they’re locked inside. They manage to break down the door but need to find a new place to live in the wilderness.

“Last season there was such a quick turnaround and it felt the conversation with [the writers] about the season happened partway through the season,” Lynskey, who plays the adult version of one of the crash survivors, says. “So now to be talking before the season’s even begun and they have everything mapped out, it’s just super exciting.”

The three-time Emmy nominee can’t wait to see her castmates, including Warren Cole and Christina Ricci. “I just miss everyone,” Lynskey says. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I get to have scenes with Warren! I get to have scenes with Christina!’”

During this time between shooting, Lynskey shares that she and her costars stay in touch with a “fun” group text.

“There’s so many group texts, to be honest with you, there’s so many offshoots,” the actress says. “There’s one with all of us, which is just absolute chaos, and I think it’s called Shrimp Cheese. At some point, the title got changed to Shrimp Cheese, and I keep meaning to ask, why is this group called this? Can we change it? Too far in. It’s just going to be that forever.”

Yellowjackets follows a group of high school soccer players who survive a plane crash and how their lives play out 25 years later. Lynskey got her start in Hollywood as a teenager, so she knows how it feels to grow up in the industry. But she doesn’t believe her younger Yellowjackets costars don’t need her advice.

“They’re so incredible, so strong and smart,” the New Zealand native gushes. “They really know themselves. I think they know that I’m always there for them if they need someone to back them up or someone to talk to about anything that feels wrong, but they’re very good at advocating for themselves. I do think things are different now. I think that women in the industry have an agency that was not encouraged when I was younger, and it’s incredible to see.”

Lynskey next stars in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, in which she portrays a writer who interviews a Holocaust survivor responsible for tattooing his fellow prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau in the 1940s.

“It’s just great to be working and working on things I’m excited about,” she says. “I’m so grateful that anyone’s watching and paying attention.”