Community Star Joel McHale Joins Yellowjackets Season 3

Community and Starman star Joel McHale is joining the cast of Showtime’s hit series Yellowjackets. The second season of Yellowjackets concluded last May, and fans have been eagerly awaiting the third season. However, like many top-tier series, the show has faced delays due to last year’s WGA and SAG strikes.

In addition to the planned Community movie, McHale will balance his Yellowjackets role with his time on Fox’s Animal Control, which recently got renewed for its third season. He also produces and hosts unscripted shows for Netflix and made a brief appearance in the third season of The Bear. Clearly, McHale has been keeping busy since his time as Starman wrapped up.

Variety, the first to report McHale’s casting, noted that details about his character remain under wraps. The Emmy-nominated series has been attracting some prominent guest stars. The main cast includes Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Ella Purnell, Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Sammi Hanratty, Steven Krueger, Warren Kole, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis.

Yellowjackets is set in 1996, following a New Jersey high school soccer team’s journey to Seattle for a national tournament. Their plane crashes deep in the Canadian wilderness, and the survivors are left to fend for themselves for nineteen months. The series not only chronicles their fight for survival but also tracks their lives in 2021.

“Yellowjackets has been an unadulterated sensation for Showtime,” said Gary Levine, co-President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc., at the time of its Season 2 renewal. “We are overwhelmed by both the acclaim and the audience response to our series, including several ‘Best of 2021’ lists, a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and increasing viewership. Clearly, there is a hunger for originality and audacity, and our incredible showrunners Ashley, Bart, and Jonathan, along with their pitch-perfect cast, have delivered that and so much more.”

Besides the third season, there are also rumors of a “bonus episode” coming, but details on this are scarce.

“I haven’t been able to see it,” Yellowjackets star Sophie Nélisse said in April. “We weren’t there when they were shooting and we were all back home. So, I don’t know anything that happened. I mean, I read the script. It’s a great script. It’s super cool. But I haven’t seen it. I wish they would have shown us a special little screening, but no, we don’t have any.”

Source: Variety