Elijah Wood’s mysterious new Yellowjackets season 2 character Walter will challenge Christina Ricci's Misty Quigley in a surprising way, according to series producer Jonathan Lisco and co-creator Ashley Lyle. Showtime's dark thriller series starring Ricci, Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, and Juliette Lewis is set to return in March. In Yellowjackets, the survivors of a 1996 plane crash are brought together once more when an unknown individual claims to know what happened during their time stranded in the Canadian wilderness and threatens to expose the lengths that they went to in order to survive their ordeal.
In the latest issue of Empire, Lisco and Lyle sat down for an interview ahead of Yellowjackets' season 2 premiere on March 26. When discussing Wood's amateur investigator Walter, Lisco revealed that he would challenge the eccentric and dangerous Misty through his strange personality. Lyle expanded on the executive producer's point by highlighting the dynamic between Wood's and Ricci's characters as something outside of typical relationships, but unique. Check out
Lisco and Lyle's full response below:
Jonathan Lisco: "You basically try to out-weird her."
Ashley Lyle: "There's a really magical chemistry between them, and I don't necessarily mean that in the traditional way."
Everything We Know About Yellowjackets Season 2
Yellowjackets season 2 is set to expand the narrative of the series further, as the upcoming episodes will depict how the group of survivors tackled the harsh conditions of the winter months during the incident in 1996 while diving deeper into the mysteries at play during the present day. As such, season 2 will introduce other survivors' adult versions, with Simone Kessell played adult Lottie and Lauren Ambrose playing adult Van. Meanwhile, Nicole Maines and François Arnaud join the show as Lottie's present-day associate Lisa, and Paul, Coach Scott's (Steven Kreuger) secret boyfriend in New York, respectively.
Alongside expanding its roster of characters, Yellowjackets season 2 has also been teased to ramp up the series' darker elements, promising more shocks and mystery as the show continues to unravel what happened in 1996. While Ricci has teased that the present-day storyline will become even crazier, Sophie Nélisse, who portrays the younger version of Shauna, revealed that Yellowjackets 1996 storyline is more graphic, with episode 6 of season 2, in particular, being noteworthy for its more violent moments. As such, it is clear that, as the present-day cast goes to greater lengths to hide their past, the 1996 storyline will take Yellowjackets into darker territory, as the show addresses season 1's cannibalism teases and the start of cult-like behavior that began in its final episodes.
Similarly, Yellowjackets season 1 established Misty as one of the show's standout characters, due to her idiosyncratic dark side that she displayed. Sammi Hanratty's portrayal in the 1996 storyline showed the beginnings of this dark side, but the show is expected to explore that further in the upcoming episodes. And while Yellowjackets season 3 has been confirmed, many viewers may be wary whether Wood's new character will survive the upcoming episodes given Misty's willingness to kidnap and kill in season 1. However, with Lisco and Lyle teasing a dynamic that'll throw Ricci's malevolent nurse out of her comfort zone, Wood's Walter could prove to be one of Yellowjackets season 2's most surprising additions.
Source: EMPIRE