Yellowjackets Gets Early Season 2 Renewal From Showtime

It only took a few weeks for one of the most talked-about new shows of 2021 to get a second season order. Yellowjackets, the genre-bending thriller on Showtime, has been getting a ton of buzz through its first five episodes, with rave reviews from critics leading the charge. Even though there is still a good chunk of the first season left to be released, Showtime has decided to go ahead and order another round of episodes.

On Thursday, Showtime announced that it had renewed Yellowjackets for Season 2. The series currently has a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has been viewed by over 4 million people across all platforms. 

"It's done extremely well in terms of streaming subscriptions," Showtime President of Entertainment Gary Levine told Deadline. "It was our second biggest series debut ever on streaming, and it's grown each week on streaming by double digit percentages. In terms of acclaim, in terms of buzz – no pun intended – and in terms of hard numbers, this show has just exploded. For it to be embraced as quickly and as deeply as it was by both audiences and critics alike, that's a little like catching lightning in a bottle – you can never anticipate that but boy, it's awfully sweet when it rarely happens."

Yellowjackets stars Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress, and Christina Ricci. The series comes from creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, who also serve as executive producers and co-showrunners alongside Jonathan Lisco.

Dexter: New Blood has helped provide a platform for Yellowjackets, as the established IP of the former has led to increased viewership in the latter. New Blood is the only series on Showtime with a better debut than Yellowjackets. The most recent episode of the series saw 295,000 viewers in Live+Same Day numbers.

"While they are very different shows, we felt that both the strength and some of the tonalities of Dexter would be a great launching pad for Yellowjackets and it seems to have been borne out," Levine said. "Dexter is a dark and violent show but it's also a witty, funny show, it's also a family drama, and Yellowjackets has some of the same mix of tones."

There is still a lot of Yellowjackets left this season, but fans can rest assured knowing that there will be more on the way after the season finale.

Have you been digging Yellowjackets? Let us know in the comments!