50 free Yellowjackets trivia questions with answers. Yellowjackets follows a New Jersey girls' soccer team stranded in the Canadian wilderness for nineteen months after a 1996 plane crash, and the damaged adults they become 25 years later. This quiz covers both timelines: the real disasters that inspired the show, the Lord of the Flies remake that lit a fire under its creators, how the team got its name, and the casting of Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis and their teenage counterparts. It then works through the story: the black box Misty smashes, Laura Lee's doomed flight, the Doomcoming mushrooms, Jackie's last night, the Queen of Hearts, the cabin fire, Coach Ben's trial, the frog researchers and the satellite phone. There are production questions too, from the Vancouver locations and the theme song 'No Return' to the strikes that delayed season three, the Emmy nominations, Hilary Swank and the final-season casting. Spoilers run through season three. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the series and its episodes, and the source line appears under each question after you answer.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which network did Yellowjackets premiere in November 2021?
Showtime
HBO was a contender but passed because it was already developing Euphoria, another show with teenage leads.
Q 02Who created Yellowjackets?
Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson
The married duo also serve as showrunners alongside Jonathan Lisco.
Q 03In what year does the plane crash in Yellowjackets take place?
1996
The adult timeline is set 25 years later, in 2021.
Q 04The Yellowjackets are a high school girls' team in which sport?
Soccer
They were flying to a national championship tournament in Seattle when their plane went down.
Q 05The team's fictional hometown of Wiskayok is in which US state?
New Jersey
Both creators grew up in New Jersey.
Q 06How long are the survivors stranded in the wilderness?
Nineteen months
Their plane came down while flying over Canada on a weather detour.
Q 07Which real-life event partly inspired the premise of Yellowjackets?
The 1972 Andes flight disaster
The creators had talked about the film Alive, and were also fascinated by the Donner Party.
Q 08Public reaction to a planned female-led remake of which novel helped fuel the creators' idea?
Lord of the Flies
Critics said girls could never descend into the same barbarism as the boys; Lyle's response was 'You were never a teenage girl, sir.'
Q 09Why did the creators choose the name Yellowjackets for the team?
It came up in a Google search and fit thematically
They liked that yellowjackets depend on a queen and are 'a small creature with a large sting'.
Q 10Which actress plays the adult Shauna?
Melanie Lynskey
She was the first person cast, and won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for season one.
Q 11Christina Ricci plays the adult version of which character?
Misty
Misty is the team's equipment manager, played as a teen by Samantha Hanratty.
Q 12Juliette Lewis played the adult version of which survivor for the first two seasons?
Natalie Scatorccio
Sophie Thatcher plays teenage Natalie, and was cast from a self-recorded tape before Lewis was.
Q 13Who plays adult Taissa Turner?
Tawny Cypress
Jasmin Savoy Brown plays the teenage Taissa; both were cast for their mix of strength and fragility.
Ella Purnell plays which character, the team captain?
Q 21Who wrote and performed the theme song 'No Return'?
Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker
The pair, from Shudder to Think and That Dog, also score the show; Alanis Morissette covered the theme in season two.
Q 22Which 1990s song was used as temporary music for the theme before 'No Return' was written?
'Mother Mother' by Tracy Bonham
The finished theme features a Farfisa organ and first appears in episode three.
Q 23Which artist covered No Doubt's 'Just a Girl' to promote season two?
Florence and the Machine
Jackie Taylor
Purnell was a series regular in season one and returned as a guest and then a recurring presence.
Q 15Which two actresses joined in season two as adult Van and the adult version of the team's mystic?
Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell
Both roles were upgraded from recurring to series regular when the adult versions were introduced.
Q 16Elijah Wood joined the cast in season two as which character?
Walter, a citizen detective
His character is one of the few adults with no teenage counterpart on the show.
Q 17Steven Krueger plays Ben Scott, who holds what role with the team?
Assistant coach
He loses a leg in the crash after Misty amputates and cauterises it.
Q 18Which Oscar winner joined season three as the adult Melissa?
Hilary Swank
Her casting in a recurring role was announced in September 2024.
Q 19Which actor, husband of the actress playing adult Shauna, guest-starred in season two?
Jason Ritter
Lynskey later said her co-stars stood up for her after a crew member body-shamed her, with Lewis writing to the producers.
Q 20Where was most of season one filmed after the pilot was shot in Los Angeles?
Vancouver
A paintball park in Surrey stood in for the crash site, and the crash took two days to shoot.
It was released as a single on March 9, 2023.
Q 24Which season was announced as the show's last?
Fourth
Showtime renewed it in May 2025, and in October the creators said the story 'wants to end'.
Q 25Production of season three was delayed by what?
The 2023 Hollywood strikes
Writing began on May 1, 2023, and stopped the very next day when the WGA strike started.
Q 26How many Primetime Emmy nominations had Yellowjackets received by the end of 2025?
10
The tally included Outstanding Drama Series; Lynskey and Ricci both earned acting nominations for season one.
Q 27In 2025, Yellowjackets was its network's second-most-streamed series behind which show?
Dexter: New Blood
Season three drew the series' highest viewership to that point.
Q 28Who directed the pilot episode?
Karyn Kusama
Kusama, an executive producer, also brought showrunner Jonathan Lisco to the series.
Q 29In the pilot, a reporter offers adult Shauna a seven-figure deal for what?
A book
Jessica Roberts claims to be from The Star-Ledger, but Shauna finds she works for no paper.
Q 30In the pilot, teenage Taissa deliberately injures which teammate to keep her off the trip?
Allie
She breaks the weaker player's leg in practice, fearing she would cost them the championship.