Some exciting news for fans of the hit show Yellowjackets today as Showtime announced new casting and production times.
Actress Lauren Ambrose was cast as an adult Van, played by Liv Hewson as a teenager on the buzzy survival show. Showtime also announced that Hewson was promoted to season regular and that production on the new show will start in Vancouver at the end of the month, according to Variety.
For the uninitiated, Yellowjackets is the story of an all-girls soccer team that crashes in the wilderness on the way. The show is told in two timelines: the girls’ ordeal and the aftermath 25 years later.
The women that appear in the later timeline have served as confirmation that those, in particular, survive their wilderness jaunt, but Van has never appeared as an adult leading many to hypothesize she didn’t make it. Now we know for sure that she did.
During their flashback timeline, Van and Tai (played by Jasmin Savoy Brown) are in a romantic relationship, so the addition of adult Tai (played by Tawny Cypress) should indeed prove to add another complication to Tai’s storyline.
In a previous interview with Variety, showrunner Jonathan Lisco was asked about adult versions of Lottie and Van, he said, “I will hit the buzzer and say, I think it’s safe to say that we have not met all the survivors.”
Yellowjackets was a surprise hit and garnered seven Emmy nominations, with Melanie Lynskey’s portrayal of adult Shauna and Christina Ricci as adult Misty both getting acting noms. The series also scored nominations for directing, casting, two for writing and one for best drama.
Ambrose is known for roles in the aughts show Six Feet Under and for movie roles in Can’t Hardly Wait, Sleepwalk With Me, and Where the Wild Things Are. There’s no release date just yet for the show, but we’ll keep you posted as soon as we hear anything.