Yellowjackets Casts Lauren Ambrose as Adult Van

The first season of Yellowjackets came to an end at the beginning of the year, and fans have been eager to learn more about the upcoming season. A lot of questions were left unanswered in the finale, and a casting announcement just spoiled a huge reveal. It looks like Young Van, who is played by Liv Hewson in the series, definitely survives those 19 months in the wilderness. According to The Hollywood Reporter, adult Van will officially be played by Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under, Servant). The addition of Ambrose continues the Yellowjackets tradition of casting women who had prominent teen roles in the 1990s. Before she was Claire Fisher, Ambrose starred in the teen classic Can’t Hardly Wait. 

The news of Ambrose’s casting also comes with the bonus that Hewson has been promoted to a series regular. It sounds like Yellowjackets Season 2 is about to get very Van heavy. This week also saw the news that Yellowjackets has cast its adult Lottie. Played by Courtney Eaton in the ’90s timeline, its been reported that the adult version of the character has been cast, but the name has not been revealed. It’s interesting that they would reveal Van’s casting over Lottie’s considering the series has already confirmed Lottie is alive in the present-day timeline. 

On Tuesday, series co-creators and showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson said that production on the second season will start at the end of August with the series looking to return sometime in early 2023. 

“We’re looking into the first quarter of 2023,” Lyle told The Wrap. “We are on a very similar production track in terms of time as we were last season, although of course, we have to shoot an additional episode because we had already shot the pilot the last time. I believe we are going to finish shooting in about February and we’ll be airing sometime shortly after that.”

While talking to The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top Five podcast back in March, Lyle and Nickerson teased some big plans for the next season.

“In terms of other survivors, we plant the flag that Lottie is lurking in the shadows and meeting her in the near future. Ideally, we will probably meet at least one other,” Lyle teased. “We want the viewers to be in the mindset of our characters. One thing about trauma and PTSD, it poisons how you see the world in terms of paranoia and not being able to trust people. … What we were intending was for people to question that relationship,” Lyle explained.

Are you excited Lauren Ambrose is playing adult Van? Tell us in the comments!

Yellowjackets is available to stream on Showtime.