Season 3 of Yellowjackets promises to deliver long-awaited answers to some of the show’s biggest mysteries—but are viewers truly prepared for what’s coming?
In an exclusive interview, Steven Krueger teased the shocking twists that will unfold in the highly anticipated new season of the Showtime hit.
“I will just say you’re going to be surprised, which has become a common theme in this show,” he remarked. “There are surprises everywhere. And this season does a really good job of not just creating surprises but also masking them so that people don’t see them coming.”
Krueger, 35, shared his excitement over fan reactions, especially after seeing the many theories that have circulated over the years.
“Fan theories are cracking me up. I’ve had a few people send some to me, and I’m just like, ‘These are great.’ Just the thoughtfulness and the creativity blow my mind every season. I love that about this show,” he told Us. “It’s one of the cooler elements about this particular story.”
The Mystery Surrounding Coach Ben
Krueger, who has played Coach Ben Scott since the show’s debut, has been the focus of speculation, particularly because his character is absent from the present-day timeline. While he remains tight-lipped about Ben’s fate, he appreciates the creativity behind the theories about his character’s possible journey.
“All the stuff about Coach Ben getting rescued either before the girls or after the girls—and it’s an entirely different timeline—or maybe he comes back to the wilderness specifically just to mess with them,” Krueger said, laughing. “Some of them I’ve read, and I’m like, ‘That might be pretty close to what happens.’”
Although he can’t reveal specific plot details, Krueger has always preferred to know his character’s trajectory ahead of time.
“That’s an important part of just the nature of acting and this as an art form. The more information you have, the more you can craft your performance over the course of a long arc,” he explained.
“In television, we get the luxury of building a really long arc over the course of many episodes versus a film. With this, you can really get into the nitty-gritty in each episode because you get so long to explore it.”
The Evolution of Yellowjackets
Since its premiere in 2021, Yellowjackets has captivated audiences with its chilling storyline. The series follows a high school girls’ soccer team that becomes stranded in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash.
Over the course of 19 harrowing months, the survivors resort to cannibalism to stay alive. The show also explores a present-day timeline, reintroducing the remaining survivors more than two decades later.
Krueger revealed that he regularly discusses his character’s arc with the showrunners before each season begins. “I always talk to the showrunners ahead of the season, and they are great about sharing information with the understanding that things can change throughout the course of a season,” he said.
“But I always get all the information that I can. Where does the character start? Where does the character end? What are some of the things that happen along the way? That way, I can get in there myself and start crafting the performance and figuring out the arc that I want the character to take from beginning to end.”
Coach Ben’s Isolated Struggle
Season 3 picks up six months after Ben made the difficult decision to separate from the rest of the group. But just because it was his choice doesn’t mean he’s thriving.
“The really interesting thing about the beginning of season 3 is the juxtaposition between how the girls were living and how Coach Ben is living. Obviously, he is on his own now. He is fully focused on survival at this point. He has very few resources,” Krueger revealed.
“He has found this shelter, which is great. And that’s kind of been what’s keeping him alive, and he’s been able to make do with what he has. But when they cut to the girls and what they’ve been able to accomplish, it’s night and day.”
Krueger found this contrast between the groups particularly compelling. “You really see what somebody goes through when they are forced to just survive off of very minimal resources versus when you have a team of people that really do come together and work together,” he said.
“The glow-up that happens to the girls at the beginning of this season… they’re kind of thriving in a way. But when you cut to Ben Scott—I don’t know how much longer this guy has.”
A Season Filled with Twists and Darkness
While the season may start on a lighter note for the younger survivors, that doesn’t last long.
“It’s not dark in the sense where you’re like, ‘Oh, this is so heavy, I can’t watch it.’ The thing that I love about this season is it’s dark, but they finally make that jump [to fill in the gaps],” Krueger explained.
“It does get dark pretty quickly, and you see this descent into a whole other mindset for pretty much everyone. But it’s done in such a clever way, with so many different twists and turns that you don’t see coming.”
The actor concluded by emphasizing just how satisfying this season will be for longtime fans. “It’s just an endlessly satisfying season.
The general consensus is we all hope this is going to be our best season just because the writing is so on point. The arc of the story really ties up a lot of those loose ends that people have been wondering about, and you see what happens finally.”
Where to Watch
Yellowjackets is available to stream on Paramount+ on Fridays and airs on Showtime Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
