Warning: This article contains spoilers for Yellowjackets season 2!The regular cast of Yellowjackets are joined by a host of new cast members in season 2, playing both new characters and as yet unseen adult versions of the other survivors. Season 2, episode 1, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen," picks up both timelines where the Yellowjackets season 1 finale left off. In 1996, the soccer team comes to terms with the death of Jackie (Ella Purnell) and the disappearance of Javi (Luciano Leroux) as winter closes in around them. Decades later, in the present day, Misty (Christina Ricci) is on the trail of the missing Natalie (Juliette Lewis), while Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and husband Jeff (Warren Kole) continue their attempts to cover up the murder of Shauna's lover Adam.
Meanwhile, Taissa (Tawny Cypress) discovers the horrific shrine in her cellar in the present day, while in 1996, the sleepwalking exploits of her younger self (Jasmin Savoy Brown) are getting more troubling. As Taissa, Shauna, Nat, and Misty struggle to keep their secrets from coming out in the present day, the returns of other survivors into their lives will complicate matters further. Here's every member of the Yellowjackets cast returning for season 2 and the new characters who'll be joining them.
Sophie Nélisse & Melanie Lynskey As Shauna Sadecki
Melanie Lynskey reprises her role as the adult version of Shauna Sadecki in Yellowjackets season 2, following a memorable guest appearance as Kathleen Coghlan in The Last of Us. Shauna and Jeff's marriage is strangely revitalized as they cover up Adam's murder. After breaking into Adam's studio, they deface portraits of Shauna to hide the evidence of her relationship with the artist before having sex in the middle of their crime scene. The improvements in Shauna and Jeff's relationship horrify their daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins), who discovered the remains of Adam's driver's license in the ashes of the family barbecue.
Meanwhile, The Book Thief's Sophie Nélissen returns as the 1996 timeline's Shauna. In Yellowjackets season 2, episode 1, it's revealed that Shauna is still coping with her guilt over Jackie's death and is carrying the baby of Jackie's boyfriend, Jeff. Yellowjackets season 2 will likely reveal more clues as to what happened to Shauna's baby. Episode 1 showed a troubling foreshadowing of how far Shauna is willing to go to keep her unborn baby nourished, as she ate Jackie's ear in the closing moments.
Jasmin Savoy Brown & Tawny Cypress as Taissa Turner
Billions' Tawny Cypress reprises her role as ruthless Taissa Turner, whose political victory celebrations are undermined by the grisly discovery made by her wife Simone (Rukiya Bernard) in the Yellowjackets season 1 finale. In season 2, episode 1, Simone threatened to reveal her discovery unless Taissa steps down from office and seeks psychiatric help. It remains to be seen what Taissa will do about this warning, and how her ex-girlfriend Van (Lauren Ambrose) factors into the storyline.
Meanwhile, Jasmin Savoy Brown, who played Mindy in Scream and Scream VI returns as the teenage Taissa, whose relationship with Van (Liv Hewson) is still strong following the wolf attack. Van has promised to stick with Taissa, but her troubling behavior while sleepwalking may be key to why Taissa and Van aren't together as adults. For now, Taissa and Van have isolated themselves from the rest of the group at nights, to protect them from Taissa's sleepwalking, but this may not last forever.
Samantha Hanratty & Christina Ricci as Misty Quigley
In the 1996 timeline, Misty (Shameless' Samantha Hanratty) is still dealing with the fallout from the accidental poisoning, and is once again ostracized from the group. Misty has already shown that she has valuable skills within the group, but her skills for deception and manipulation make her just as much of a hindrance as a help to the group's survival. It will be interesting to see how Misty attempts to shift the group dynamic to get back into their good graces as Yellowjackets' 1996 timeline continues.
In the present day, Christina Ricci returns to the role of adult Misty after she played Marilyn Thornhill in Netflix's Wednesday. In Yellowjackets season 2, Misty is investigating the disappearance of Nat, while also assisting Shauna with her attempts to cover up Adam's murder. Misty is horrified to discover that one of her fellow citizen detectives has cottoned on to Shauna's potential guilt when he suggests that police look into Adam's girlfriend as a potential suspect on the forum. It's been revealed that Misty will end up working with this citizen detective, but it's unclear if this team-up is to distract him from Adam's murder, or a means to put him off Shauna's scent permanently.
Sophie Thatcher & Juliette Lewis as Natalie Scatorccio
Completing Yellowjackets' core four is Natalie, the adult version of whom is played by Juliette Lewis, recently seen in Welcome to Chippendales on Hulu. In Yellowjackets season 2, episode 1, Natalie has been kidnapped by the mysterious cult led by her fellow survivor, and shamanic healer Lottie (Simone Kessell). The dynamic between the adult versions of Lottie and Natalie should provide some gripping drama as Yellowjackets season 2 progresses and answers the question of if Lottie killed Travis.
In the gap between seasons of Yellowjackets, Sophie Thatcher was seen as Drash in The Book of Boba Fett. Thatcher returns as the teenage Natalie, who's working with Travis (Kevin Alves) to map their surroundings while also looking for his younger brother Javi. Unwilling to believe that his brother is dead, it seems like the search for Javi will provide the main source of conflict between Natalie and Travis Viewers are aware that Nat and Travis are doomed as a couple, so it's likely that there'll be more explanation of how the two of them imploded in Yellowjackets season 2.
Kevin Alves as Travis
Kevin Alves has been promoted to a series regular in Yellowjackets season 2, presumably due to his increased availability after Locke & Key, in which he played Javi, was canceled by Netflix. It was Travis' death that kickstarted Yellowjackets' present-day timeline, so he's clearly an important character for the overall story of both timelines. Now that Kevin Alves is a series regular, viewers can expect to find out much more about the character's backstory, and his role in the aftermath of the plane crash.
Ella Purnell as Jackie
Ella Purnell made a surprise return as Jackie in Yellowjackets season 2, essentially fulfilling the role of Shauna's conscience. Purnell has recently been seen in Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead as Kate, the estranged daughter of Dave Bautista's character Scott. She also has a regular role as the voice of Gwyn in Star Trek: Prodigy on Nickelodeon, which returns later in the year. It's revealed in Yellowjackets season 2, episode 1, that Shauna is having regular chats with the frozen corpse of her best friend. These hallucinations explain how Jackie's diary had entries in it from the days after she died, which in turn suggests that there will be more from the hallucinated Jackie in future episodes of Yellowjackets.
Courtney Eaton & Simone Kessell as Lottie Matthews
Yellowjackets season 2, episode 1 reveals the adult Lottie Matthews (Simone Kessell) for the first time, leading the cult that kidnapped Natalie. The disturbing sequence toward the end of the episode in which the cult carry out an eerily similar ritual to the one from Yellowjackets season 1 confirms that Lottie brought something back with her from the wilderness. The first inklings of this are when the teenage Lottie is sent to a psychiatric facility and attempts to "heal" a fellow patient by placing a hand on their chest. Simone Kessell's casting in Yellowjackets season 2 follows recent appearances as Princess Leia's adopted mother Breha Organa in Obi-Wan Kenobi and as Mother Teach in two episodes of Our Flag Means Death. Meanwhile, Courtney Eaton is soon to be seen in the movie Parachute for which she won the best performance award at SXSW.
Liv Hewson & Lauren Ambrose as Vanessa Palmer
Lauren Ambrose joins the cast of Yellowjackets season 2 as the grown up version of Taissa's ex-girlfriend Van, played as a teenager by Santa Clarita Diet's Liv Hewson. As Van is trying to help Taissa with her sleepwalking in the 1996 timeline, it would make sense for her to seek out Vanessa in the present day. Vanessa is the only person with whom Taissa has been truly vulnerable, so it will be interesting to see how their dynamic has changed in the intervening decades. Lauren Ambrose is best known for her role as Claire Fisher in HBO's acclaimed funeral parlor drama Six Feet Under, and recently played Dorothy Turner in Servant, executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan for AppleTV+.
Elijah Wood as Walter
Viewers have only heard Elijah Woods voice thus far in Yellowjackets season 2, but the character is set to play a larger role in the series. It's been teased by Yellowjackets producer Jonathan Lyle and co-creator Ashley Lyle that Wood's character is written as an attempt to "out weird" Misty. Like Misty, Walter is also an amateur detective, who becomes involved in Yellowjackets' present-day timeline. Elijah Wood is best known for his role as Frodo in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but is also no stranger to high school intrigue, having played Casey Connor in The Faculty.
The casting of Wood as an oddball continues a recent Elijah Wood career trend, having previously played Tony, another citizen detective-style character in I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore, alongside Yellowjackets' Melanie Lynskey. Wood has also excelled as an everyman in extraordinary circumstances in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and as Norval in the offbeat, but nightmarish black comedy Come to Daddy. These recent roles ensure that Wood's interplay with similarly multi-faceted contemporary Christina Ricci will be an unmissable part of Yellowjackets season 2.