Yellowjackets cast says goodbye at final season premiere

The cast of Yellowjackets walked the carpet on the Paramount Lot in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Nov. 11, for the premiere of the show's fourth and final season, and spent the night talking about goodbyes. WWD covered the fashion on Nov. 12, and Deadline published the cast's farewell remarks the same day. The season arrives Friday, Nov. 20, on Paramount+ with the Premium plan.

Yellowjackets is a survival drama created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson. Its premise is simple to state and hard to watch: a 1996 New Jersey high school girls soccer team's plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness, and the players are stranded for 19 months, Deadline reports. The adult survivors live with what happened, and the story moves between the two timelines. Variety reports that Lionsgate Television is the studio, and Paramount Global Content Distribution distributes the series.

The cast includes Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, Sophie Nélisse, Sophie Thatcher, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Liv Hewson and two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, according to Variety and Paramount's season announcement. Elijah Wood, who joined in Season 2, reprises his role as Walter Tattersall for the final season, Deadline reports. Paramount's announcement calls the series Emmy-nominated.

The official season description, released in August, sets the stakes: "As the survivors race to bury their sins before rescue arrives and an old flame roars back into town with plans of her own, turns out not every homecoming is a joyous one, and this one's going to sting." Variety published that description on Aug. 20 along with the premiere date.

The night itself is a Los Angeles story. WWD reports the arrival carpet ran on the Paramount Lot in Los Angeles, and Fast Media's photo captions place the event on the Paramount Pictures Studios Lot in Hollywood. WWD describes the night as a fashion showcase ahead of the final season, with Christina Ricci kicking off the arrival carpet.

Season 4 picks up after the survivors are rescued and returned home, where they must adjust to civilization and take their secret to the grave, Deadline reports. The official description adds that an old flame roars back into town with plans of her own. Paramount's release says the series tracks the lives the survivors have tried to piece back together nearly 25 years later, so the final season is as much about adult life as about the wilderness.

Elijah Wood, who plays Walter Tattersall, said he felt "so privileged" to join the show in Season 2. He called the chance to end his role "a real satisfying way to say goodbye to the character," Deadline reports.

What to know

• The final season premieres Nov. 20 on Paramount+ with the Premium plan, according to Deadline and Variety.
• Melanie Lynskey, who plays Shauna Shipman, said: "I was not ready for it to end." She said the cast was grateful to know the ending was coming: "I was grateful when we were going through it that we knew it was the ending."
• Sophie Nélisse, who plays the teen version of her character, called the season "bittersweet." She said: "this feels very final and decisive, and that's quite heartbreaking."
• Samantha Hanratty, who plays Misty Quigley, called the advance notice "a huge gift to know that we were gonna have an ending." She added: "I feel like so many shows nowadays never get answers, and unfortunately they don't get to finish."
• Co-creator Bart Nickerson explained the decision to end the show. Deadline reports that he said: "We chose to try to squeeze it in." The choice was between a dense fourth season and the risk of "overstaying our welcome with a fifth season."
• Sophie Thatcher, who returns as the teen Natalie, waited to read the last episodes "because I didn't want it to be real," Deadline reports.
• Jasmin Savoy Brown, who plays the teen Taissa, said: "It's seven years of our lives."
• Elijah Wood said of the show: "all great things must come to an end, you know?"
• On the carpet, WWD reports that Ricci wore Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood, Lynskey wore Tom Ford, Thatcher wore McQueen and Nélisse wore a metallic silver gown.

The cast also talked about how the show aged with them. Jasmin Savoy Brown said some of the teen actors are now the age she was when they shot the pilot. "They were literally 17, and now they're 25, 26. They came of age... it's crazy," she said, Deadline reports. Liv Hewson said the cast wanted "to make the most of this opportunity." Jenna Burgess said the show "will always challenge you as a person and as an actor, because we're telling the story of real people and humans and just trauma, lots of trauma."

Co-creator Bart Nickerson's explanation adds context. He said the team had always given the caveat that the show would tell them when it wanted to end, and that the story began moving toward the end more rapidly. Deadline quotes his decision to squeeze the remaining story into Season 4 rather than risk a fifth season.

What is still unknown: the sources do not say how the final episodes end. The season premieres Nov. 20.

Our take

For many viewers, this final season closes a show that has been part of their lives since the first episode. The premiere read as a farewell, and Hanratty's point about shows that never get to finish is the reason many fans will watch to the end. The series was built around survivors who look back on a past they cannot leave, and the cast's remarks suggest the actors felt the same way about their own seven years on it. For LA readers, the send-off happened on a studio lot in Hollywood, where the cast's looks and their goodbyes were the story. Will you binge the whole season when it lands on Nov. 20, or save it for the week?

Where this comes from

This comes from WWD's Nov. 12 report on the red carpet and styling, and Deadline's Nov. 12 report on the cast's remarks, the creators' explanation of the season and the Nov. 20 date. Variety's Aug. 20 report gives the premiere date, the cast list and the studio credits, and Paramount's Aug. 20 press release supplies the Emmy note and the season description. Fast Media's Nov. 13 photo captions place the event on the Paramount Pictures Studios Lot.

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LA This Weekend Team