Set to guest star during Season 3, Joel McHale did some Yellowjackets name-dropping during his late-night interview with Seth Meyers.
Over the summer, fans of Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson’s (Narcos) Yellowjackets learned that two big names would be joining the cast for the third season. After learning that Joel McHale (Community, Animal Control) was locked in for a guest role, the news hit that Hilary Swank was set for a recurring guest star role (with rumblings that Swank’s undisclosed character could get bumped up to series regular if a fourth season gets the go-ahead). Now, we’re getting a bit of “Yellowjackets” talk from McHale, who checked in with Seth Meyers during Wednesday’s edition of NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers. While it’s not a whole lot (check in at around the 3-minute mark in the clip above), he does touch briefly on a timeframe for when he was filming – and has some fun with Meyers and the audience’s reaction.
Yellowjackets Co-Creator Ashley Lyle on Season 3
Just before November kicked in, fans were treated to some deeper insights into what’s to come with Season 3, courtesy of an interview Lyle had with Vanity Fair – one that included special images of the characters’ older and younger selves posing together (that will be important in a minute so don’t forget that). But before we go any further, for those of you worried about whether or not you’re going to start getting answers this season, Lyle makes sure to put your minds at ease: “There are at least two very big questions with very clear answers.”
As for what the future has in store for Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Van (Lauren Ambrose), Taissa (Tawny Cypress), Misty (Christina Ricci), and the others (in both timelines), Lyle noted that having the actors paired up in the images that were included with the interview speaks to how the creative team is approaching this season. “For each of these pairings and for each of these characters, the merging, or the overlapping of the past and present, happens in a very different way. It’s very specific to the characters. I have to choose my words so wisely, sorry [Laughs],” Lyle shared. “In certain cases, that overlap is actually quite literal in a way; in other ones, it is a demonstration of a past and a present character that may have seemed quite different and quite disparate—how that young adult became the person they are. The person that they are, even as an adult, really is an echo or a resonance from the person they used to be.”
The series co-creator continued, “We love to play with the idea that, in some ways, you are who you are. I think back to the person I was when I was 17 years old, and I don’t feel that different. I know I’m different, but in a lot of ways, I don’t feel that different. How do you change while you are in your core, in your essence, the same person you always were? How much are you hiding that, and how long are you able to do that, is a question that we’re playing with this season.” While Lyle was very cautious not to tread into spoiler territory, they were able to share clues about what the third season holds for Shauna, Taissa, Misty, and Van.
“We are going to learn more about what happened in the wilderness that they are so afraid of coming out. We hope it will be both satisfying and, at times, unexpected. And I think that we have found ourselves—let me think of how to say this. [Pause] The stakes are pretty high in the present-day storyline, perhaps in a way that they did not feel in season two, and that was really exciting for us to delve into,” Lyle shared.
