Warning: This story contains spoilers from Yellowjackets season 3, episode 7.
While fans still await Hilary Swank’s debut on Yellowjackets season 3, the series delivered one of its most shocking and wildest moments with the introduction of three new guest stars: Ashley Sutton as Hannah, Joel McHale as Kodi and Nelson Franklin as Edwin.
All three first appeared in a cliffhanger at the end of episode 6, “Thanksgiving (Canada),” before being formally introduced in a very Lost-like episode, “Croak,” which showed how the three outsiders — researchers and an outdoors expert studying rare Arctic Banshee frogs — ended up in the wilderness before stumbling upon the remaining plane crash survivors mid-ritual as they feasted on Coach Ben (Steven Krueger).
For Sutton, 37, whose casting was first reported in January and since has been kept a secret, her Yellowjackets debut was a longtime coming.
“Well, I am a huge fan of the show. I have been watching it from the beginning,” she tells PEOPLE, before revealing, “I first auditioned for the pilot and the writing is just so good and fun and dark and spooky — all sorts of things that I love.”
In fact, it was five years ago at this point. “It was so long ago,” Sutton, who most recently appeared on Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, says now. She explains, “I met with the producers and [the pilot script] was really funny. I didn’t know fully what the story was. I was just in the past, but at school. I was in ‘the before times,’ I guess we’ll call it.”
So when the chance came to play Hannah, Sutton knew what she was in for — at least when it came to the show itself — even if it still took a couple of rounds before she landed the part. “I was talking about this with some of the cast my first day with them, telling them how I auditioned for the pilot and then this role came about and I auditioned,” she recalls.
“I did a couple of rounds for this and I ended up booking it and it’s just such a good role,” she continues. “You just don’t get this opportunity very often where you come into a show that is already at the top of its game. The actors are all amazing. The crew is the best of the best. The directors and writers, they’re all so, so good.”
Sutton adds, “And when you get to come in and have this really juicy character at this kind of pivotal, shocking point for fans, I felt so lucky that it happened with Hannah.”
As it turns out, Hannah is a teen mom-turned-young frog researcher with more of her story to be revealed in episodes to come. But Sutton teases that Hannah “can relate to the Yellowjackets in so many ways.”
“They’re obviously so young while this is happening. It’s such a traumatic experience, which Hannah also had at a young age, being a young mother that had some difficulties that she had to work through,” Sutton shares, adding that Hannah “is very naive. She’s definitely a little immature.”
And when it comes to Hannah’s interactions with the remaining plane crash survivors over the next few episodes, “it’s like going back to high school,” the actress says. “She has to figure out how to navigate all these different relationships.”
Luckily for Sutton, being the newcomer on set wasn’t as awkward — or as scary — as Hannah’s introduction to the survivors. After first filming with McHale and Franklin (“It was all the stuff inside the tent, which was fun for us to develop our dynamic together and the triangle that’s created,” she says), the actress was able to spend some one-on-one time with some of the main ensemble.
“The second day was in the wilderness and it was the log scene and the moments afterwards,” she says, referring to when Hannah’s being chased by Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) and others. “So I kind of got two days to slowly introduce myself to the cast members.”
“Everyone is so lovely. Everyone is so kind,” Sutton says. “I really have had such a lovely time getting to know everybody and everybody’s different personalities and what we like and how we’re all similar and different — and it’s been really beautiful.”
Given that she shares all her screen time with the younger ensemble, Sutton notes that “Sophie, Courtney [Eaton], Jasmin [Savoy Brown], Kevin [Alves], Liv [Hewson], they were all so lovely.”
The actress then shouts out Melanie Lynskey, who leads the cast as the adult version of Shauna in the present timeline, and is known for spending time off set with both ensembles.
“Melanie would have game nights and dinners and invite anybody who could make it,” Sutton shares. “I truly look up to her in that capacity. She was such a good example of a No. 1, making sure that everyone felt included, like even me, the new girl.”
She adds, “So it’s lovely to have someone at the head of everything that has that strong will and understanding of how we’re all in this together. It’s such a collaboration and there should be a community amongst all of us and there really truly is, which is lovely.”
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New episodes of Yellowjackets season 3 debut Fridays on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME before airing on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
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