Showtime has added a host of actresses to its pilot for Yellowjackets, a drama survival horror series created by Narcos‘ Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson.
The series follows a group of “wildly talented high school girls soccer players who become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the Ontario wilderness.” Melanie Lynskey (Castle Rock), Tawny Cypress (The Blacklist: Redemption) and Jasmin Savoy Brown (The Leftovers) were previously cast.
Joining the trio for the pilot are Juliette Lewis (Ma), Christina Ricci (Z: The Beginning of Everything), Ella Purnell (Army of the Dead), Sophie Thatcher (Prospect) Sophie Nélisse (The Book Thief), Sammi Hanratty (Shameless), Steven Krueger (The Originals) and Amy Okuda (Atypical). Members of the cast will play older versions of characters decades after their traumatic experience in the woods.
Yellowjackets will chronicle the soccer team’s “descent from a complicated but thriving team to warring, cannibalistic clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later, proving that the past is never really past and what began out in the wilderness is far from over.”
Lewis and Thatcher will star as the adult and teen versions of Natalie, who “despite her natural talent, Natalie’s punk rock spirit and habit of finding trouble make her the unlikeliest member of the team. As an adult, Natalie struggles to quiet the demons that still haunt her from her time in the wilderness.”
Ricci and Hanratty will play adult and teen versions of Misty, the Yellowjackets’ equipment manager. She is described as “Eager to please and easy to overlook, Misty’s abundance of team spirit belies a hidden dark side.”
Purnell will play Jackie, “the Yellowjackets’ magnetically charismatic, effortlessly popular, occasionally entitled team captain.”
Nélisse will play Lynskey’s counterpart as the teen version of Shauna.
Krueger will play Ben Scott, “the assistant coach and the object of many an unrequited crush.” Okuda will play Cat Wheeler, “a history teacher recruited to bolster the female presence on the coaching staff, despite knowing literally nothing about soccer.”
The pilot for Yellowjackets will be directed by Karyn Kusama (Destroyer).
