<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the Showtime series “Yellowjackets” was renewed for a fourth season. Now, it’s been confirmed that this fourth season will be the last. Contrary to some reporting, “Yellowjackets” has not been canceled; it’s ending on its own terms. A post on the “Yellowjackets” Instagram<\/a> announcing the news included a statement from the creators, husband-and-wife duo Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson:<\/p>\n “We’ve always known there would come a point when the story would tell us it wants to end, and it’s our belief that our job \u2014 our responsibility \u2014 is to listen.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n “Yellowjackets” is part survival thriller, part folk horror, and part dark comedy. The series follows one set of characters at two points in time. In 1996, a New Jersey girls’ soccer team, the Yellowjackets, flew to a tournament and crashed in the Canadian wilderness. They spend the next 19 months devolving into murderous, pagan cannibals before being rescued. The series also follows the survivors in middle age, 25 years later, as they remain haunted by what happened to them.<\/p>\n Season 3 of “Yellowjackets” posted the highest ratings yet, so why end it now? Especially since Showtime is infamous for dragging shows out too long: see “Dexter,” “Homeland,” etc.<\/p>\n It’s easy to suspect behind-the-scenes issues since Showtime’s parent company,\u00a0Paramount, has recently undergone a merger<\/a> with Skydance. New regimes always have new priorities. The Showtime brand has been falling by the wayside, and “Dexter: Original Sin” was even un<\/em>renewed for a previously confirmed second season.<\/a><\/p>\n The Hollywood Reporter claimed<\/a> that Lyle & Nickerson are in talks to continue their creative relationship with Paramount, though. That doesn’t sound<\/em> like an acrimonious breakup. What does give pause is that Lyle & Nickerson have often\u00a0said they planned for five<\/em> seasons of “Yellowjackets.”<\/a> Why is the show falling one season short?<\/p>\n\n