Being a teen is hard enough without having to figure out how to survive in the remote wilderness.
EW spoke with creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson about what to expect from the show.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Where did this idea come from?
Jane Widdop, Alexa Barajas Plante, Mya Lowe, Courtney Eaton, Sophie Thatcher, Keeya King, and Sophie Nélisse as Shauna on ‘Yellowjackets’.Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME
[Laughs]
BART NICKERSON:Like, pretty late in production.
And I said, “Christina, my husband is Bart.”
And she just went, “What?!”
Juliette Lewis as Natalie on ‘Yellowjackets’.Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME
We like to blame our overwhelming sexual chemistry.
Which one of us seems untenable?
We really don’t want to know.
LYLE:Yeah, which one of us makes no sense in this equation?
We’re leaving that a mystery.
I would say that 80 percent of the time the other one just goes, “Huh.”
And then we move on with our lives.
This was one of those.
We both have a long historical fascination with both the story of the Uruguayan team inAliveand the Donner party.
You don’t have to be in a plane crash to have experienced trauma.
Everything that you thought your life was going to be, you start to question.
How have the experiences I went through when I was younger shaped who I am now?
And do I like who I am now?
What were the discussions you all had around how dark you were wanting to go?
Because this series doesn’t hold back, starting with a pretty brutal opening scene.
LYLE:The beauty of our writers' room was that everyone was really game.
There’s always a little bit of humor.
Let’s talk casting: How did this cast come together?
Did you write with anyone in mind?
NICKERSON:We didn’t write with anyone in mind.
We try not to do that, but we’ll talk about people as the character evolves.
Melanie was in very early, and that was an absolute dream come true.
And then with the younger cast, we got very fortunate.
We saw so many girls.
We decided pretty early on we weren’t going to get overly focused on a physical match.
But it kind of worked out.
Do you have a certain season plan for this story, or are you seeing where it takes you?
NICKERSON:I think both.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
