Development Series co-creators and co-showrunners
Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, who are married, came up with the premise of the story after they talked about the 1993 film
Alive, an adaptation of the book
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors (1974) which documents the 1972
Andes flight disaster. They are both fascinated by the story of the Uruguayan team and the
Donner Party, which served as a "jumping-off point" for their concept. Lyle and Nickerson's concept was a "metaphor for teenage hierarchy", wanting "to tell what felt like a very real story about teenage girls" and explore "the best and worst that human beings are capable of". They made a five-season pitch, not with the intent of needing exactly five seasons but to show "how expansive the show and the idea can be", that it was a multi-season story, it was "something that can sort of reinvent itself and change and shift", and that they knew what they wanted it to be and where it was going. Lyle said that a number of networks stated that it was a "big swing of an idea" with no
IP attached. A challenge they faced when pitching was networks being "aware of their brands" and tending to place shows with teenage protagonists into a
young adult box. Some networks saw the show differently from their concept. "Shows about teenagers or that feature teenagers with ambitions to be something other than a classic YA show tend to frighten people a little bit", Lyle noted. "They aren't something with a long track record." The creators said that Showtime supported "the darker and weirder qualities" of the story. The use of two timelines expanded the exploration of the characters' interpersonal dynamics and the effects of their traumas. The showrunners explained cannibalism's role in the story: The show takes place in New Jersey, the state Lyle and Nickerson both grew up in. The duo are credited as showrunners alongside Jonathan Lisco, who was brought to the series by executive producer
Karyn Kusama. On December 16, 2021, after the first five episodes aired, Showtime renewed the series for a second season. Levine said that the network had "not heard the pitch for season 2, the writers ... are going to come together in January." On the planned length of the show, Lyle and Nickerson stated in January 2022 that the story will inform them how many seasons it will be. "We have no interest in dragging this show out past its due time. We do have a multiseason arc; we strongly feel we have multiple seasons of story to tell. But at a certain point, we're going to realize that the story wants to end. And I hope that the audience is reassured that we don't intend to beat a dead horse." By May 2022, the writers were stated to be in the initial stage of writing the scripts for season two. On December 15, 2022, three months ahead of the second-season premiere, Showtime renewed the series for a third season. Writing began on May 1, 2023, but halted the next day in accordance with the
2023 Writers Guild of America strike. In June 2023, Lyle said that a bonus episode would air between the second and third seasons. However, in December 2024, Lyle confirmed its delay: "The truth is that there is a bonus episode but we may need to wait a bit longer for it." Showtime renewed the series for a fourth season on May 20, 2025. In October, it was announced as the series' final season, with production starting in 2026 and the season premiering that year. Lyle and Nickerson stated:
Casting Season 1 The
pilot episode was not written with any actresses in mind, and auditions were held in
Los Angeles. "We decided pretty early on we weren't going to get overly focused on a physical match," Lyle mentioned. As a result, some cast members had to dye their hair and wear contact lenses to match the physical characteristics of their counterparts. Nickerson said it was vital to find two actresses who could portray Misty with "a deep kind of humanity that could make it feel lived in and real"; the role was eventually given to
Sammi Hanratty and
Christina Ricci. Hanratty described the auditions as being "really intense". She did not meet any of her co-stars until the
table read for the pilot. When asked if she was treated differently when in costume, she added, "I don't think we've talked about this, but I was seeing a therapist while I was in Canada, and that was something that we discussed. I was definitely treated differently ... I got more self-conscious, and my walk even changed a bit. I just felt like a bigger target, you know, as a person." According to Nickerson,
Jasmin Savoy Brown and
Tawny Cypress were cast as Taissa because they were both able to portray her with a "level of dynamic strength" as well as "vulnerability and fragility".
Ella Purnell portrays Jackie, a character who proved difficult to cast. Lyle said the character was supposed to be a stereotypical popular girl with "little cracks of that façade". She explained, "I think that her insecurity, her vulnerabilities needed to be on display pretty early on or you'd end up hating her and that was sort of the opposite of what we wanted the audience to feel." with Lewis, Ricci, Purnell, Hanratty, Thatcher, and
Sophie Nélisse joining the cast in November. The following month, Ava Allan,
Courtney Eaton, and
Liv Hewson were cast in recurring roles. In June 2021, it was reported
Warren Kole,
Peter Gadiot, Keeya King,
Alex Wyndham,
Sarah Desjardins, Kevin Alves, and Alexa Barajas would also star.
Season 2 Casting for the second season began in mid-2022. In August 2022,
Lauren Ambrose and
Simone Kessell joined the cast to play the adult versions of Van and Lottie; their roles were also upped from recurring to series regulars.
Elijah Wood and Nuha Jes Izman were also added to the cast in season-long recurring guest roles, while
Kevin Alves's role as teenage Travis was upped from recurring to series regular. Wood plays Walter, "new citizen detective who is not represented by a younger self on the show".
Jason Ritter, who is married to Melanie Lynskey, guest stars in one episode of the second season. In January 2023,
Variety reported that Keeya King, who played teen Akilah in season one, had exited the series. Her role was recast with Nia Sondaya.
Nicole Maines was cast as Lisa, an associate of adult Lottie attempting to recover from past trauma. Additionally,
François Arnaud guest-stars in four episodes portraying Paul. His character is described as "a New York writer and secret boyfriend of Coach Scott (Steven Kreuger) who reminds Coach Scott of what might have been".
Seasons 3 and 4 In September 2024, it was announced that
Hilary Swank was cast in a recurring role for the third season. In February 2026, Nia Sondaya, who plays Akilah, was promoted to series regular for the fourth season. Also in February,
Molly Ringwald and
June Squibb were announced to have been cast in the fourth season.
Filming The pilot was greenlit in September 2019 and shot in Los Angeles in November. A number of scenes set in the high school were filmed in and around
John Marshall High School in
Los Feliz, Los Angeles. In the pilot's opening scene, a flash-forward shows a group covered in fur clothing. Hanratty was the only cast member present while the scene was shot and the other characters were played by stunt coordinators. Hanratty says the writers have not told the cast which characters appear in that scene: "We all have our theories on who that is too, and we have a group chat in our cast where we try to come up with theories ourselves of what's going on and who we think is who." In December 2020, Showtime gave
Yellowjackets a series order. Filming restarted in
Vancouver on May 10, 2021, Aside from Vancouver, other filming locations included the Panther Paintball & Airsoft Sports Park in
Surrey, which was used as the site of the plane crash, and
The Bridge Studios in
Burnaby. The plane crash scene took two days to shoot. In an interview, Lynskey said Cypress, Ricci, and Lewis stood up for her after she was
body shamed by a crew member, with Lewis writing a letter to the producers on her behalf. In November 2021, Purnell summarized the timeline of the production: "Here's how it went; we shot the pilot, we took like a year and a half off in COVID and then we went to Canada and shot the whole season in six months. We were in this super intense immersive bubble. We wrapped three weeks ago and now I'm doing a press junket. It's been crazy." Filming for the second season began in August 2022, with the first episode directed by
Daisy von Scherler Mayer. In early February 2023, the cast of the 1990s timeline of the series completed filming their scenes. Filming for season three started on May 14, 2024, after having been delayed because of the
WGA and
SAG-AFTRA strike. Co-showrunners Bart Nickerson and Jonathan Lisco made their directorial debuts this season, with Nickerson helming the premiere and Lisco episode three. Filming for the fourth and final season began on March 2, 2026.
Music The music for the pilot was composed by
Theodore Shapiro. The rest of the first season was scored by
Craig Wedren and
Anna Waronker, members of the rock bands
Shudder to Think and
That Dog, respectively. Wedren was invited to the series by Kusama after the series was picked up and Shapiro was unable to return. The main theme song, "No Return", was written and performed by Wedren and Waronker, who said they "aimed to channel our off-kilter '90s roots into something that felt like 'then', but could only have been made now, just like the show". Lyle and Nickerson were initially hesitant with the idea of featuring a theme song due to their growing rarity in the mainstream but were eventually convinced otherwise. According to Wedren, "The producers really, really encouraged us to go out on multiple limbs and really be experimental and try stuff, which is such a rare direction to get". A soundtrack album was also released on
Spotify. On March 9, 2023,
Florence and the Machine released a cover of
No Doubt's "
Just a Girl" as a single to promote the second season. The fourth, seventh and ninth episodes of the second season featured a cover of the show's theme song by
Alanis Morissette, which was released as a single on April 14, 2023. ==Release==