The pop-culture juggernaut Stranger Things finally concluded just under a year ago. Longtime fans who didn’t enjoy the way the series wrapped up started concocting a variety of wild theories, which included speculation that the series finale wasn’t, in fact, a series finale, and that the Duffer Brothers had planned a “secret” extra episode. Obviously, this was all wild speculation, and the cast and crew regularly debunked such a notion.
Just weeks ago, however, IT: Welcome to Derry did unveil an extra episode without warning, but rather than that episode impacting the trajectory of Season 1, it served as a supplemental experience that expanded previously teased elements of the mythology. Suffice it to say, while talk of secret episodes is sometimes wild speculation, it’s not a theory that’s completely unfounded.
Falling somewhere in between Stranger Things and Welcome to Derry is Yellowjackets — Season 2 of the series was one episode shorter than other seasons, and creators Bart Nickerson and Ashley Lyle even shared on social media that fans could expect an extra episode. In a new conversation with Deadline, however, the pair have ruled out the additional installment.
“I mean, ultimately, the canon of the show is sort of what’s aired, and for us, the fourth season is like the final installment of a complete story,” Nickerson revealed to the outlet. “And so, along the way of the making of it, there were lots of paths considered and things like that were explored, but I think ultimately, the final version of the show is what it was supposed to be.”
In other words, whatever is contained in that additional episode is unnecessary to enjoy the overall storyline of the series.
Interestingly, while theories regarding a bonus episode of Stranger Things was nothing more than a select group of fans grasping at straws, formulating theories that the events of the series finale was nothing more than a trick by Vecna, it was the Yellowjackets creators who planted the seed of a bonus episode.
Shortly after the conclusion of Season 2, Lyle shared on Twitter, “There will be a bonus episode between seasons, but I love you guys and I don’t want y’all to lose sleep thinking it’s tonight.”
Jason Ritter, husband of star Melanie Lynskey, appeared in photos from the set of Season 2, yet he didn’t appear in the episodes that aired. While Nickerson and Lyle have yet to divulge details about what was contained in the extra episode, it would seem that it would have been similar to the bonus Welcome to Derry episode that delivered a story that ran parallel to the events of the proper narrative to merely expand that world.
Why the extra episode was scrapped and if it will ever be released in any capacity, or if the episode was ever even finished, is unknown. The fourth and final season of Yellowjackets premieres on November 20.
Are you disappointed that we won’t get the extra episode? Let us know in the comments below!