The cast of “Yellowjackets” is a sprawling one, with different actors portraying the main characters in both the 1996 timeline and in the present. Of course, by Season 2, the cast of characters has shrunk after several tragedies that befell the stranded soccer players. And people in the present timeline aren’t exactly safe from the messed-up survivors, who won’t hesitate to kill to protect themselves.
Joining the Emmy-nominated Showtime drama for Season 2 are Lauren Ambrose as adult Van, Simone Kessell as adult Lottie and Elijah Wood as Walter, who aids Misty (Christina Ricci) in her Citizen Detective investigation into Natalie (Juliette Lewis)’ disappearance.
Here are all the key characters you need to know and who plays them in which timeline.
SPOILERS up through the Season 1 finale.
Sophie Nelisse as Teen Shauna, Melanie Lynskey as Adult Shauna
Before the crash, Shauna was best friends with Jackie, but was secretly sleeping with Jackie’s boyfriend Jeff. Jackie later learned that Shauna was pregnant by Jeff and the rift between the two led to Jackie’s ostracization by the entire group of survivors. Season 1 ended with Jackie freezing to death outside the cabin after an argument with Shauna.
Adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) is now married to Jeff and has a teenage daughter, Callie. She’s still haunted by Jackie, who often appears to her. Shauna incorrectly thought that Jeff was having an affair, so she has an affair of her own with Adam, the handsome artist whose car she rear-ended. When fellow Yellowjackets Misty, Taissa and Natalie tell her they are being blackmailed, she begins to suspect Adam is behind it. She confronts him and accidentally stabs him to death and her friends help her dispose of the body.
She confesses everything to Jeff, who admits that he was the blackmailer because he needed extra cash. They agree to keep each other’s secrets.
Canadian Sophie Nélisse is known for her Genie–winning performance in “Monsieur Lazhar,” as well as “The Book Thief” and “The Kid Detective.” She also starred in the 2019 horror film “47 Meters Down: Uncaged.”
New Zealander Melanie Lynskey first appeared as a real-life teen murderer in Peter Jackson’s 1994 thriller “Heavenly Creatures” with Kate Winslet. Her other films include “Ever After,” “I Don’t Feel at Home in the World Anymore,” and “But I’m a Cheerleader.” She guest starred on “The Last of Us” as the ruthless Kathleen and portrayed murder victim Betty Gore in the Hulu limited series “Candy.”
Sophie Thatcher as Teen Natalie, Juliette Lewis as Adult Natalie
Hard-partying Natalie didn’t have much in common with the rest of the Yellowjackets before the crash. We learn via flashback that Nat’s father was abusive to her and her mother. After the crash, Nat is one of the most self-sufficient of the group and the best with a rifle. She and Travis grow close on their hunting treks, but never quite commit to a relationship.
We first meet Adult Natalie as she’s finishing her umpteenth stint in rehab. She shows up with a shotgun at Misty’s, demanding to know if she also received a postcard demanding money. After finding her car disabled, she reluctantly agrees to go on a road trip with Misty to find Travis, with whom Nat has lost touch.
After being arrested for breaking into Travis’s cabin, Natalie calls Taissa, who’s been funding her many rehabilitations, for bail money. She and Misty later find Travis hanging from the rafters where he worked, dead. Natalie insists he would never have killed himself.
Natalie sells her car to come up with the $50,000 for the blackmail, but the trap she, Shauna, Taissa and Misty set goes wrong and the blackmailer gets away.
Natalie does some blackmailing of her own, forcing her former AA sponsor Suzie to find out who emptied Travis’s bank account after he died.
By the time Natalie attends her 25th high school reunion with Taissa, Shauna and Misty, she’s convinced that Travis actually did commit suicide. Later in her motel room, she prepares to kill herself with a shotgun. Just as she’s about to pull the trigger, four people knock down the door and abduct her. We hear a voicemail from Suzie that she found out who cleaned out the bank account and is now concerned that someone is following her. “Who the f— is Lottie Matthews?” is the message she leaves Nat.
Sophie Thatcher played the younger Regan in the Fox series “The Exorcist” and starred in the 2018 sci-fi film “Prospect” with Pedro Pascal. She also appeared in “The Book of Boba Fett” as Drash, the leader of a group of cyborgs.
Juliette Lewis was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Martin Scorsese’s 1991 thriller “Cape Fear,” but is best known as one half murderous duo Mallory and Mickey in Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers.” Her other films include “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” “Strange Days,” “From Dusk Till Dawn” and “August: Osage County.” She also performs with her band, Juliette and the Licks.
Samantha Hanratty as Teen Misty, Christina Ricci as Adult Misty
Misty is the Yellowjackets’ enthusiastic but unpopular equipment manager, who was often bullied by the players. After the crash, her first aid skills suddenly made her incredibly valuable to the group. After hearing two of the survivors talking about how grateful they are for her, she decided to smash the plane’s transponder ensuring that any rescuers would be unable to find them.
Misty took decisive, brutal action when Coach Ben suffered a serious leg injury, chopping off the injured limb below the knee as everyone watched in shock. She made no secret of her crush on Ben, who initially humored her although he is gay. Misty found edible plants for the group, but also poisonous ones. She spitefully put some in Ben’s tea since he wasn’t returning her affection.
Later, she picked hallucinogenic mushrooms, also intending to give them to Ben, but they were accidentally put in a soup for the “Doomcoming” party. Misty saw the mistake being made, but didn’t stop it from happening. Everyone ended up getting high on the mushrooms, except for Jackie, who didn’t eat any. Ben finally told Misty he was gay and we don’t see him again in Season 1.
Back in civilization, Adult Misty works at a nursing home, where she enjoys being cruel to patients. She’s thrilled when the blackmailing scheme puts her back in touch with Natalie, Taissa and Shauna, and keeps trying to do things with them as a group. She thinks of Natalie as her best friend, although Nat barely tolerates her. She uses her “Citizen Detective” skills to help track down Travis and her access to medicine and medical equipment also come in handy.
When reporter Jessica (Rekha Sharma) comes to her house asking her “what really happened” in the wilderness, Misty takes her hostage in her surprisingly well-prepared basement. She finally agrees to let Jessica go, but hands her a cigarette laced with fentanyl. Jessica realizes too late that Misty has given her a fatal dose and collapses behind the wheel.
Her fellow Yellowjackets call on forensic expert Misty again when they have to dispose of Adam’s body.
Samantha Hanratty played Holly on the Disney Channel’s “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,” and later recurred on CBS military drama “The Unit” and on “Shameless” as the wife of Ethan Cutkosky’s character Carl. She also appeared in the “The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause,” “An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong” and the 2019 horror movie “Countdown.”
Christina Ricci is beloved for her role as Wednesday Addams in the ’90s feature films; She returned to the franchise to play a new character in the 2022 Netflix series. Her many films include “Sleepy Hollow,” “Speed Racer,” “Casper,” “Monster” and “The Ice Storm.”
Jasmin Savoy Brown as Young Taissa, Tawny Cypress as Adult Taissa
Even before the crash, Taissa showed more ruthlessness than her teammates, when she wounded and sidelined a player she thought wasn’t good enough for the tournament.
After the crash, Taissa emerged as a natural leader, however, something in the wilderness had an effect on her as she found herself waking up in a tree top with no idea how she got there. She and her secret girlfriend Van (Liv Hewson) came out as a couple after Van was seriously injured.
Back in civilization, Taissa, now happily married with a son, ran for the Senate, despite the vow her fellow survivors made to keep a low profile. Her mysterious blackouts returned and her wife Simone (Rukiya Bernard) grew concerned about her mental health. She won the election, but Simone left her after discovering a gruesome altar in their basement. Does Taissa herself know what she’s done?
Jasmin Savoy Brown plays teen Taisssa. She’s also appeared in “Scream” and “Scream VI,” “The Leftovers” and “For the People.”
Tawny Cypress previously played art dealer Simone Deveaux on “Heroes,” and guested on “The Equalizer,” “Billions” and recurred on “Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector.”
Ella Purnell as Jackie
Jackie was the Yellowjackets team captain, whose popularity in the real world didn’t help after the crash when she didn’t contribute her fair share to the survival effort. In the Season 1 finale, she freezes to death after being kicked out of the cabin. Shauna feels responsible for Jackie’s death and is still haunted by her former best friend.
Ella Purnell’s films include “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” “Army of the Dead,” “Never Let Me Go,” and “Kick-Ass 2.”
Liv Hewson as Young Van, Lauren Ambrose as Adult Van
Vanessa “Van” Palmer has been written off for dead twice already: After the plane crash, Jackie opted not to help her escape the flames, but Van managed to get to safety anyway. Then she was mauled by a pack of wolves and, thinking she was dead, her friends put her on a funeral pyre, only to discover she was still alive. She was left horribly scarred but the ordeal led to the reveal of her previously secret relationship with Taissa.
We did not see Adult Van in Season 1, so, once again, it seemed like she might be dead. In Season 2, we find out that Van (now played by “Six Feet Under” star Lauren Ambrose) she also made it back to civilization
Courtney Eaton as Teen Lottie, Simone Kessell as Adult Lottie
Before the crash, we learned Lottie was medicated for her terrifying, sometimes prophetic visions. Her family is wealthy and her father paid for the private plane to take the Yellowjackets team to nationals. Her visions returned after the crash when her medicine ran out and she seemed eerily in tune with the wilderness and the animals there. Her prophecy of “red smoke” came true when teammate Laura Lee attempted to fly an abandoned plane to find rescue, only to be blown up when the plane caught on fire.
At the “Doomcoming” party where all the survivors dressed up in their finest clothes and handcrafted regalia, Lottie donned an elaborate crown made of deer antlers, which seemed to confirm she is the “Antler Queen” who’s been glimpsed presiding over the group’s later human sacrifices. When the group unknowingly consumed hallucinogenic mushrooms at the party, it was Lottie who singled out Jackie — the only person who did not eat the tainted soup — for not being part of the group. She also urged the others to chase a panicked Travis, whom they began to hallucinate was a deer. The next day, she told the starving survivors, “We won’t be hungry much longer,” right before a bear appeared outside the cabin and stood still as she killed it. The others were impressed by – or scared of – her seemingly supernatural abilities.
In the contemporary storyline, it appears that Lottie did not make it back to civilization like so many of her teammates, until her name is mentioned in the Season 1 finale. It’s assumed that Lottie’s followers are the ones who abduct Natalie from her hotel room before she can kill herself.
In Season 2, we finally meet the grown-up Lottie, who is played by Simone Kessell of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and “Our Flag Means Death.”
Kevin Alves as Travis Martinez
Travis and his younger brother Javi were on the plane when it crashed. Their father, who was the team’s head coach, was killed on impact. After the group chance upon an abandoned cabin and a rifle, Travis and Natalie emerged as the most capable hunters of the group. They almost had sex one day, but Travis couldn’t go through with it. During the Doomcoming party, an increasingly alienated Jackie returned to the cabin alone with Travis and slept with him. In the hallucinogenic hysteria that followed, Jackie was ostracized by the group and Travis was nearly killed.
We don’t meet adult Travis in Season 1, but we know of his tortured relationship with Natalie, which continued on and off after they were rescued. He is found hanging from a forklift in a barn where he worked, with candles placed beneath his body in the shape of the mysterious symbol from the woods. A devastated Natalie is convinced he would not have killed himself and that he was murdered by someone with ties to their time in the wilderness.
In Season 2, adult Travis is played by Andres Soto.
Besides acting, Alves is also a three-time Brazilian National Figure Skating champion. He previously appeared on “Locke & Key,” “Shadowhunters,” and “Degrassi: The Next Generation.”
Steven Krueger as Ben Scott
Assistant Yellowjackets coach Ben Scott survives the plane crash, but is left with one good leg after Misty amputates his injured limb below the knee. As the last living authority figure for the team, he deputizes Natalie and Travis to become the group’s hunters. Natalie eventually figures out he’s gay and he tells her that his decision to stay closeted broke up his last relationship.
Misty makes no secret of her crush on him and deliberately poisons him when he doesn’t immediately reciprocate. She decides to confess her love to him when they’re all high on the hallucinogenic mushrooms and he finally tells her he is gay.
Krueger previously played Josh Rosza on “The Originals,” Heath Tuchman on “Roswell, New Mexico” and Ben Coogan on “Pretty Little Liars.”
Luciano Leroux as Javi Martinez
Javi, Travis’s little brother, is the youngest of the survivors. He runs away from the group during the chaos of the Doomcoming party and is still missing as Season 2 begins.
Luciano Leroux’s other acting credits include appearances in the TV series “Get Shorty,” “A Million Little Things,” and “50 States of Fright.”
Warren Kole as Jeff Sadecki
Jeff (who is played as a teen by Jack DePew), is married to Shauna and they share daughter Callie. He’s a salesman at a furniture store and is revealed in Season 1 to be the one blackmailing the Yellowjackets because he needed the money. He was devastated to learn “there’s no book club,” and that his wife was cheating on him instead. But he agrees to keep Shauna’s affair with Adam secret and let Shauna’s friends think Adam was the blackmailer. Although he read Shauna’s journals about her time in the wilderness, he seems to have no idea what she’s capable of.
Before the crash, Jeff, who was dating Jackie, and Shauna were secretly sleeping together, resulting in her pregnancy.
Kole’s previous TV shows include “Common Law,” “Shades of Blue,” and “The Following.”
Sarah Desjardins as Callie Sadecki
Callie is Shauna and Jeff’s moody teenage daughter, who doesn’t have time or respect for either of her parents. She sees her mom out with Adam before he goes missing, and rightly suspects her mom is behind his disappearance.
Before “Yellowjackets,” she played Donna Sweett on “Riverdale” and Jenna on the YouTube series “Impulse.”
Peter Gadiot as Adam
Adam is the handsome artist who meets Shauna when she rear-ends him in traffic and they exchange numbers. The two begin an affair when Shauna thinks her husband is cheating on her. Shauna suspects he is the one blackmailing her friends and accidentally stabs him to death. Her fellow Yellowjackets help her dispose of his body, but his disappearance has made the news and the police have connected them through their texts.
Gadiot played James Valdez on “Queen of the South” and also appeared on “Matador” and “Supergirl.”
Alex Wyndham as Kevyn Tam
Kevyn went to school with the Yellowjackets and used to be a good friend of Natalie’s. When she and Misty are arrested, Misty (pretending to be Nat) calls Kevyn, who’s now a cop, to bail them out.
Natalie and Kevyn hook up, but he walks out after she borrows his gun without asking. In Season 2, he’s on the case of Adam (Peter Gadiot): He questions Shauna, whose texts tie her to Adam, but has no proof she had anything to do with his disappearance… yet.
Wyndham is known for “Little Dorrit,” “The Crimson Field” and “Rome.”
Elijah Wood as Walter
Walter is a fellow Citizen Detective who is intrigued by “AfricanGrey,” aka Misty (Christina Ricci), offline. They team up to investigate Natalie’s disappearance and find they have a surprising amount in common.
Elijah Wood is best known as Frodo in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Like Ricci, he began as a child actor (he made his screen debut in “Back to the Future Part II”). They co-starred in “The Ice Storm,” and he shared the screen with Melanie Lynskey in “I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore.” His other films include “Deep Impact,” “The Good Son,” “Huck Finn” and “Man of God.”
John Reynolds as Detective Matt Saracusa
Matt is a new character in Season 2. He helps Kevyn Tam investigate the disappearance of Adam (Peter Gadiot).
John Reynolds played Officer Callahan in “Stranger Things,” Drew Gardner in “Search Party,” and guested on “Miracle Workers.” His films include “Save Yourselves!” and “Horse Girl.”
Nuha Jes Izman as Teen Crystal
Crystal is one of the stranded Yellowjackets members. We get to know her a little better in Season 2, where her singing annoys the other girls, except for Misty (Samantha Hanratty).
She previously guest starred on an episode of “FBI.”
Mya Lowe as Teen Gen
Yellowjacket Gen also gets more screen time in Season 2. She’s played by Mya Lowe, whose previous TV appearances include “Riverdale,” “A Million Little Things” and “Charmed.”
Alexa Barajas as Teen Mari
Mari, who mostly hangs out with BFF Akilah, is one of the first of the Yellowjackets to believe in Lottie’s visions. She previously played Ultraviolet/Esperanza Garcia on “The Flash.”
Nia Sondaya as Akilah
Akilah, another stranded Yellowjacket, also becomes more prominent in Season 2. She’s played by Nia Sondaya, who played Drea Spivey on the Apple TV+ series “Truth Be Told,” and guested on “Bel-Air.”
Nicole Maines as Lisa
Lisa is one of Lottie’s followers at Camp Green Pine. She helped abduct Natalie, who then attacked her with a fork in her attempt to escape.
Nicole Maines previously played Nia Nal on The CW’s “Supergirl,” as well as “The Flash” and “Legends of Tomorrow.” She also played Piper in the Netflix movie “Darby of the Dead.”
Jenna Burgess as Teen Melissa
This character, one of the background Yellowjackets, only got a name in Season 2. She usually hangs out with Gen (Maya Lowe), and can be recognized by her trademark pink baseball cap.
Burgess has also appeared in “The Night Agent” and the Lifetime movie “Lies Between Friends.”
