Lauren Ambrose has been cast in the second season of the Emmy-nominated drama “Yellowjackets,” Showtime announced on Thursday. “Yellowjackets” will begin production on Season 2 later this month in Vancouver, and Ambrose is set to play the adult version of Van, who’s portrayed as a teenager by Liv Hewson. The company simultaneously announced that Hewson has been promoted to be a series regular in the show’s second season.
The casting of Ambrose answered a question the “Yellowjackets” fandom has had about whether Van had made it home alive. “Yellowjackets” follows the aftermath of a New Jersey high-school girls’ soccer team whose plane crash left them stranded in the wilderness, where they create their own society (and seemingly turn to cannibalism) before being rescued 19 months later. The show unfolds in two timelines: the stranded girls who survived the crash in 1996, and their adult selves 25 years later.
In Season 1, those adults were played by Emmy nominees Melanie Lynskey (Shauna) and Christina Ricci (Misty), plus Juliette Lewis (Natalie) and Tawny Cypress (Taissa). In the show’s season finale, however, we learned that Lottie (played as a teenager by Courtney Eaton) was also alive — and many fans guessed that Van had also survived.
In the wilderness timeline in 1996, Van and Tai are in a romantic relationship, which promises an exciting entanglement for Ambrose’s adult Van and Cypress as adult Tai, who just won her local Senate race.
When the “Yellowjackets” showrunners — Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson and Jonathan Lisco — were pressed by Variety in June about casting adult Lottie and adult Van, Lisco said, “I will hit the buzzer and say, I think it’s safe to say that we have not met all the survivors.”
“Yellowjackets” earned seven Emmy nominations, including best drama series, two nominations for writing, directing and casting, in addition to the previously mentioned acting nods for Lynskey and Ricci.
Ambrose played Claire Fisher on “Six Feet Under” for the HBO show’s five seasons, and received two Emmy nominations for that role. She is currently on Apple’s M. Night Shyamalan thriller “Servant.”