Why Juliette Lewis Left Yellowjackets

This article contains spoilers for “Yellowjackets.”

If there’s one clear hero in “Yellowjackets,” it’s Natalie “Nat” Scatorccio, as played by Sophie Thatcher as a teenager in the past timeline and Juliette Lewis as an adult in the present timeline. Teen Natalie is the only character on the show who consistently tries to do the right thing, even if this sometimes backfires and makes everything worse. Whereas Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown and Tawny Cypress), Van (Liv Hewson and Lauren Ambrose), Misty (Samantha Hanratty and Christina Ricci), Lottie (Courtney Eaton and Simone Kessell), and (especially) Shauna (Sophie Nélisse and Melanie Lynskey) have all disappointed us at one time or another, Natalie has stayed brave, kind, and reasonably level-headed.

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By the end of season 3, it seems like the group has split into two main factions in the past timeline: one that’s far more unbalanced (mostly Lottie, Shauna, and Tai), and Team Resistance, which is made up of everyone else. Teen Shauna (Nélisse) may be officially in control of the Yellowjackets, leading through fear and force, but Nat is the unofficial leader because everyone likes her. It seems the stage has been set for a teen Nat vs. Shauna showdown in season 4; it’s exciting, but it would probably be more intriguing if there was a parallel Nat vs. Shauna showdown brewing in the present storyline. Adult Shauna (Lynskey) certainly grows increasingly reckless and vindictive in season 3, but now there’s no adult Nat to challenge her. Why? Because the show very suddenly killed her off in season 2.

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That’s right: in the season 2 finale, “Storytelling,” Natalie is accidentally stabbed with a needle carrying a lethal dose of phenobarbital (or possibly fentanyl). It sounds silly, but it’s slightly less silly in context: adult Misty (Ricci) is a well-established poisoner who’s trying to kill a minor character, but Natalie steps in the way to stop her. It’s still a little hard to believe that Misty could both accidentally stab Natalie and press down on the syringe before realizing her mistake, but that’s the outcome we got. And hey, if someone had to die in that episode, I suppose it should be the one survivor who’d managed to find some peace. But what led to Lewis’ exit in the first place?

Although most of the major character deaths on “Yellowjackets” have been well-received by fans, Nat’s death fell flat. It didn’t feel like this was something the series’ writers had planned from day one, but something thrust upon them by outside forces. Fans quickly theorized that there was conflict between Lewis and the showrunners; it would not only explain Nat’s untimely death, but it would also account for why adult Nat’s storyline was suddenly so light. Indeed, her season 2 arc involved less screen time and took place almost entirely in one location, creating the impression it was written to allow Lewis to get things over with as quickly as possible.

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Although Lewis has stayed mostly positive in interviews about the show, she’s implied that the rumors are at least partially true. “I think I’m good for a series for two seasons. It’s a different kind of work,” she said in a 2024 Variety interview. “In my creative DNA, I like moviemaking. It’s something I thoroughly understand with a single director, a finite period of time and knowing beginning, middle and an end. And I really relish those confines.” It seems like Lewis didn’t want to deal with several more seasons of “Yellowjackets,” so the writers cut her loose.

Adding more fuel to the fire alleging that Nat’s death wasn’t part of the original plan, Lewis posted an Instagram message before season 2 premiered that sure seemed to hint at some creative differences between her and the series’ writers. “I hope ‘Natalie’ gets written in the way that I thought she was gonna be when I signed on,” she wrote. “Much more ‘colorful,’ scheming smart, you know not fixated on a guy and talking tough, lol.”

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Then there was this Vulture interview with the “Yellowjackets” cast back when season 1 first aired. Lewis didn’t seem happy to be there; when she was first asked to talk about her character, she passed. After about 24 minutes, she chimed in to say, “Natalie was really depressing to play. And she’s a devolution. So you sort of devolve, and I didn’t know that.” She kept things positive in the end, complimenting the rest of the cast and crew, but the line about Natalie’s character arc is the one that stuck in upset fans’ minds the longest.

While I myself found Nat’s death oddly hollow in season 2, I think season 3 has made the most of it going forward. With each passing episode in the teen storyline, viewers get a better understanding of why adult Nat was struggling the most out of all the survivors. Misty’s role in Nat’s death was also well-utilized; it led to her starting off the third season more isolated from the other survivors than ever, which set the groundwork for her fully turning against Shauna by the finale.

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Perhaps most compellingly, Nat’s death has added extra stakes to the adult storyline. We’ve seen in season 3 that as bad as teen Shauna and Lottie’s control over the group gets, Nat will always be there to argue for reason and protect everyone from their worst impulses. The adult survivors no longer have that luxury. Whereas season 3 firmly cements teen Nat as the hero in the group going up against the villain Shauna, there is no clear hero among the adult survivors who can fight back against Shauna’s reign of terror. That either means Shauna will win for good this time or that someone else will have to step up and assume Nat’s role. 

Whatever happens, there’s an extra sense of chaos going into the adult storyline in “Yellowjackets” season 4, something that could not have happened without adult Nat’s untimely, potentially-unplanned demise. The adult survivors have lost their moral compass, and whatever happens next will not be pretty.

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