From 1970s setting to documentary-style narrative: How Yellowjackets' original pitch was starkly different from the show

Showtime's popular thriller Yellowjackets' Season 3 finale featured some intense, nail-biting moments. From the revelation of the Pitt girl's identity to Shauna being crowned the Antler Queen, the show wrapped up intriguing storylines.

As per recent updates, Yellowjackets has not been renewed for a new season. However, in a 2023 interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunners Bart Nickerson and Jonathan Lisco teased that the show would have five seasons in total.

But do you know that before Showtime picked it up, the original pitch for Yellowjackets was designed in a school yearbook style? Although the main plot was derived from the pitch, certain changes were made to adapt it for television. From selecting a different timeline to adding or removing characters, Yellowjackets was significantly different from the original pitch.

Here's what we know about the difference between the original pitch and the show

Yellowjackets' original pitch was starkly different from the show

If you look closely at the original pitch- Yellowjacket's yearbook, the first difference that you'll come across is a different timeline. According to it, the plane crash took place in 1975 instead of 1996. The mock yearbook also explains the reason behind it. It ties it to a significant historical event- President Nixon turning Title IX into law. Title IX is a 1972 federal law that prohibits any sex based discrimination in government-funded educational activities. The mock yearbook states:

"In 1975, three years after President Nixon signed Title IX into law, the Dearborn High Yellowjackets became the first team in state history to qualify for the Girls' US Soccer Championship Series in Manchester, NH. They never got a chance to compete."

The yearbook also gives details about the unfortunate events. It reads:

"Air traffic control lost contact with the team's chartered plane forty-one minutes into the two-hour flight. Search and rescue efforts continued for months, but failed to find any sign of the missing aircraft, the sixteen players and three coaches onboard, plus Head Coach Bill Wender's thirteen-year-old son Cody, were mourned by a nation."

Thus, the original pitch for the show placed the events of the plane crash and the rescue in the 1975-1977 timeline, while in the show, it was tweaked to 1996-1998. Positioning the survivor's narrative in the present day, instead of the yearbook's 2001 timeline. This made the TV show aesthetically pleasing and, most importantly, quite relatable.

Additionally, the showrunners initially wanted the survivor's narrative to be shot in a documentary style format. They developed a slow-burning narrative, revealing new details with each episode.

"In 2001, on the eve of the twenty-fifth anniversary of their rescue, five of the surviving members of the team agree to participate in a documentary film memorializing the tragedy."

In the original pitch, aka the yearbook, the showrunners mentioned the number of survivors they planned for the show. Even though they didn't reveal their identities, they pointed out that the plane crash would only have seven survivors, five of whom agreed to be interviewed. The original pitch laid out the structure of the series in three phases:

• The High School Years
• The Missing Years
• The Interviews

Additionally, some leads were omitted from the show. For instance, in the original pitch, there was a teammate named Yumi Heineken called 'The Secret Weapon'. As per the yearbook, she was born to a Japanese father and a Midwestern mother and had ties to the infamous Tokyo girl gangs, Sukeban.

In the show, viewers only saw Coach Ben as the only surviving adult from the plane crash. However, the original pitch also featured a female coach named Ms. Cat Wheeler. She was described as an alumnus of Dearborn who knew very little about soccer but accompanied the team as an assistant coach for the Nationals. Similarly, in place of the Head Coach's thirteen-year-old son Cody Wenders, the show locked in two characters, Javi and Travis, to play the role.

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All episodes of Yellowjackets are available to stream on Netflix.

Also read: This one Yellowjackets Season 1 finale sequence doesn't add up to Mari's fate in the third chapter

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