Paramount+ UK has announced that Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) is joining the highly anticipated second season of Yellowjackets in a season long guest arc. Wood will play Walter, a dedicated Citizen Detective who will challenge Misty in ways she won’t see coming. Created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson (Narcos), Yellowjackets stars Emmy nominee and Critics Choice Award winner Melanie Lynskey (Castle Rock), Oscar® and Emmy nominee Juliette Lewis (Camping), Emmy nominee Christina Ricci (Z: The Beginning of Everything) and Tawny Cypress (Unforgettable). Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under, Servant) and Simone Kessell (Obi-Wan Kenobi) were recently announced to join in series regular roles for season two. Produced for SHOWTIME by studio Entertainment One (eOne), the series will go into production later this month in Vancouver.
Most notably, Wood starred as the beloved hobbit Frodo Baggins in the iconic trilogy of films The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towersand Return of the King, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings. He will next be seen starring in the upcoming films L.A. Rush and The Toxic Avenger, a superhero comedy horror film. He was most recently seen in No Man of God, which he also produced, and debuted at the 2021 at the Tribeca Film Festival. Previously, he starred in the acclaimed genre comedy Come to Daddy, along with the comedy series Wilfred and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. With a career spanning 30 years, Wood has continuously evolved his body of work with notable films including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Everything is Illuminated, Sin City, The Faculty, The Ice Storm, Set Fire to the Stars, Open Windows, Grand Piano, Maniac, Celeste and Jesse Forever, The Last Witch Hunter, The Romantics, Oxford Murders, Paris Je’Taime, Green Street Hooligans and I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore, which won the prestigious Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Wood also has extensive experience in voice over work, having lent his voice to notable films such as Happy Feetand the Tim Burton-produced animated feature 9, along with television series Over The Garden Wall and Star Wars Resistance. Wood’s production company SpectreVision, founded in 2010 alongside Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller, continues to build its reputation with widely celebrated films such as Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and which also played at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Other SpectreVision films include the comedy/horror film Cooties, which Wood also starred in, as well as The Greasy Strangler, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, The Boy and Richard Stanley’s Color Out of Space, which premiered at the 2019-edition of the Toronto International Film Festival to rave reviews.
Yellowjackets is nominated for seven Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actress for Melanie Lynskey and Outstanding Supporting Actress for Christina Ricci. Yellowjackets was also nominated for two writing Emmys and earned additional noms for Directing and Casting.
Equal parts survival epic, psychological horror story and coming-of-age drama, Yellowjackets is the saga of a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players who become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to savage clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later, proving that the past is never really past and what began out in the wilderness is far from over. Season one also starred Ella Purnell (Sweetbitter), Samantha Hanratty (Shameless), Sophie Thatcher (Prospect), Jasmin Savoy Brown (The Leftovers), Sophie Nélisse (The Book Thief), Steven Krueger (The Originals) and Warren Kole (Shades of Blue). Liv Hewson (Santa Clarita Diet) and Courtney Eaton (Mad Max: Fury Road) have been upped to series regulars in season two.
Yellowjackets is executive produced by Lyle, Nickerson and fellow showrunner Jonathan Lisco. Karyn Kusama also executive produced and directed the pilot. Drew Comins of Creative Engine also serves as executive producer.
