The Showtime horror-mystery series Yellowjackets will revisit the winter storyline that the end of season 1 teases. Yellowjackets premiered in November 2021, and follows a girls high school soccer team, the Yellowjackets, after they become stranded in the wilderness following a plane crash on the way to their final competition. The series entails two timelines: One of the team as they struggle to survive in the woods, and that of 25 years later when those who survived are adults. In both timelines, horrific events occur, including murder, blackmail, and mauling by wolves, to name a few.

Yellowjackets season 1, episode 1 begins with a flash-forward to the team in the woods during winter, but the rest of the season shows them stranded during summer until season 1, episode 10 when winter finally arrives overnight. This not only destabilizes the Yellowjackets due to the added difficulty of surviving in an environment that is excruciatingly cold, but also foreshadows new power dynamics forming. Part of this includes the last scene in the Yellowjackets season 1 finale, which shows Lottie Matthews (Courtney Eaton) offering a bear heart to a make-shift altar, and then kneeling down to it along with Van (Liv Hewson) and Misty (Samantha Hanratty).

Related: Yellowjackets Theory: Lottie Is The Antler Queen (All The Evidence)

Now Yellowjackets showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson tell Variety that season 2 will return to the events that are to come as the girls face a stark winter. Filming for Yellowjackets season 2 is set to start in late summer, but Lyle assures this will not deter the storyline from taking place in winter, and that conversations with the production team on how to create a set that resembles a chilling atmosphere have begun. Lyle shares that writers on the series have nicknamed season 2 "The Winter of Their Discontent," a reference to the John Steinbeck book with the same title. A full quote from Lyle on the challenge of making a late summer look like winter for Yellowjackets season 2 can be read below:

"We’re starting those production conversations and we have some really amazing and creative people on our team. So this will be movie magic at play."

Lottie looking at the camera as Van and Misty kneel behind her in Yellowjackets.

The emergence of the cult-like faction at the end of season 1, as well as how Shauna as a teen (Sophie Nélisse) will survive the winter while being pregnant lines up Yellowjackets season 2 to be even more nail-biting and disturbing than the previous. Beyond this, the possibility that the cult which begins in the woods may now be more prevalent 25 years later is another haunting factor. If Lottie is in fact alive and in charge of the cult years later, and is also responsible for the kidnapping of Natalie (Juliette Lewis) that takes place at the end of Yellowjackets season 1, then Shauna, Taissa, and Misty will have their work cut out for them in trying to rescue her. 

Hopefully the winter set design during a summer shoot for Yellowjackets season 2 will not detract from the horror thrills that fans are expecting from the cliffhanger at the end of season 1. There is clearly talent within the set design, props, and makeup departments for Yellowjackets as even from the pilot, the brutal depiction of a broken leg with bone jutting out set the tone for how far the series is willing to go in showing every gory detail. This, along with learning what ruthless actions the Yellowjackets must take in winter to survive, as well as gaining more insight into how the cult develops and what power it still may hold in the present timeline, is something viewers can look forward to when Yellowjackets season 2 premieres.

More: Why Yellowjackets Won't Kill Off Van

Sources: Variety