Yellowjackets VFX Supervisor Reveals Surprising Details About Creating That Shocking Cannibalism Scene (Exclusive)

While Showtime's Yellowjackets is no stranger to shocking twists and developments, there was one moment in Season 2 of the hit series that was so stunning it has been a topic of conversation since it happened in episode 2, "Edible Complex". The moment is when, in the 1990s storyline, the survivors in the Canadian wilderness finally resort to cannibalism to survive by eating Jackie (Ella Purnell). Jackie had died at the end of Season 1, but it was months before the survivors finally dealt with her remains and when they went to burn her body on a pyre, a deluge of snow ended up cooking the body instead — and prompting the macabre feast.

While the moment is horrifying, it's also visually unsettling for viewers in part because of how the corpse looks and while part of the credit goes to the practical faux corpse created for the series, credit also goes to VFX artists for enhancing its appearance to make it look, well, edible. Speaking with ComicBook.com Marshall Krasser, FuseFX VFX supervisor who worked on the second season of Yellowjackets, explained how they enhanced the practical prop to make Jackie more appealing so that viewers would understand just how the survivors were able to give into that urge.

"In that particular case, what they were trying to convey was initially the actors smell it, so smell starts whetting their appetite because they're very hungry. earlier in the scene, or one of the sequences, there was a hanging bear carcass that actually had too much meat on it," Krasser said. "We had to go in and remove some of that so the hanging carcass was more bones. The idea is that you understand, as a viewer, that they're running out of food. There's not much left. They're getting very hungry. When it comes out there, the smell comes in and then they see this succulent thing on the barbecue thing."

Krasser explained that for inspiration on how to make the corpse look "succulent", they looked at various roasted meats — including Thanksgiving turkeys — to get a good reference for the skin.

"What we guided to for that was we first went out and looked at Thanksgiving turkeys, roasted turkeys, as the skin looked," Krasser said. "Then, we were doing further research because actually pig flesh is not far from human flesh. We ended up a lot of that referencing roasted pigs and using that look and that succulent, that juicy feeling. We could basically augment what they've done on set just to make it a little more appetizing, and I think help the viewers understand a little bit more how you could do cannibalism. But, if you're very hungry and something looks really good and it smells really good, at a certain point your primal instinct takes over."

Krasser also explained that they did look at references for real burned human skin as well, but also explained that the real work not only for that moment but for Yellowjackets on a whole is for the VFX to be seamless and go unnoticed by viewers.

"One thing that people in the visual effects industry and supervisors like myself and other people say, we hope that nobody ever looks in our search history because we Google some very weird stuff," Krasser joked. "In a situation like this, yes, charred humans, burnt humans. Yes, you do look at that and as we were doing this, we always throw on the disclaimer for the more squeamish, this is at least PG-13 or more. Some people get very, very squeamish with some of the stuff. We try not to put those people on the shots. Like I said, it's going out and especially with Yellowjackets, it's supposed to be seamless. You're not really supposed to think about the visual effects of it."

What is Yellowjackets Season 2 About?

Yellowjackets begins in 1996, as a team of New Jersey high school soccer players travels to Seattle for a national tournament. While flying over Canada, their plane crashes deep in the wilderness and the remaining team members are left to survive for nineteen months. The series chronicles their attempts to survive while also tracking their current lives in the 2020s.

"Are we gonna get weirder? Probably!" series co-creator Ashley Lyle previously said of the show's future. "Will the fallout of *redacted*'s death affect our (anti)heroes in massive ways? Will our girls' struggle to survive against the elements (and themselves) get even down and dirtier? Do we still have to tell the story of Pit Girl? You betcha! In short, making a show is wild. It can be thrilling and sometimes heartbreaking. And as an obsessive tv watcher myself, I know that being a fan is weirdly similar. Just know how grateful we are for everyone who spent their valuable time with us. If it brought you joy, or made you laugh, or think, or cry, or just provided a respite from real life, that makes all the craziness feel worthwhile. All we can do is tell the story we needed to tell. Here's to S3, hive. BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ."

Is Yellowjackets renewed for Season 3?

Yellowjackets was renewed for a third season well before Season 2 even premiered, in part because the show has been repeatedly breaking viewership records for Showtime. 

"With Yellowjackets' runaway success in Season 1 and the pent-up anticipation for Season 2, we wanted to maximize the momentum by fast-tracking Season 3 now," Chris McCarthy, President/CEO of Showtime and Paramount Media Networks, explained last year. "The show's ambition is only exceeded by its execution, and I thank the incredible creative team behind it, including Ashley, Bart, Jonathan, eOne, and the Showtime team, for turning this into such a success." 

What did you think about the cannibalism scene in Season 2's "Edible Complex"? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.