School Spirits could focus on quite the interesting love triangle for Peyton List’s Maddie Nears in Season 2.
The first season got viewers familiar with Maddie and Simon’s deep friendship, which is primed for something more. Sadly, the finale introduced a tragic twist that proved cataclysmic to the duo’s current status quo.
At the same time, Simon isn't the only one who is pining for Maddie. Wally, another stuck spirit in the afterlife at Split River High, is very much into her—he even got a kiss after homecoming.
With Simon being further away from Maddie than ever before, many fans think her romance with Wally could be given some time to shine.
Will Maddie Be in a Love Triangle for School Spirits Season 2?
While speaking in an exclusive interview with The Direct’s Russ Milheim, School Spirits star Kristian Ventura, who plays Simon in the Paramount+ series, commented on the possible love triangle in Season 2.
When asked what he thought about a potential love triangle between Simon, Wally (played by Milo Manheim), and Maddie, Ventura was admittedly “speechless” about the “layers” of that complex situation:
“I'm speechless right now. Because I just realized the layers of the love triangle aren't just, 'Oh, I have to pick between a guy like and a guy I love. A guy kind of like, but this guy has this.' It's not that. Technically, what it is is a character, Maddie, who has to decide, will I love a person who I am stuck with as a ghost and just embrace my own fate? The smarter thing, Wally, or am I going to go ahead and risk trying to fix myself and give Simon hope? And him being the real-world answer? The real-life answer. Probably a slimmer chance, but something a little bit more genuine and built…”
“I don't want to call Wally settling,” admitted Ventura, but he does “wonder what is more important to people:”
“I don't want to call Wally settling, but you're basically using immortality--be with Wally, essentially, forever. Or be with Simon for 80 years. That's actually the stakes. And I wonder what is more important to people. Because that's literally a love that lasts forever, isn't it? Oh, I love the jock. And we're gonna be together forever. Well, yeah, you are until the ghosts' world erupts inside of itself and disappears. But I wonder if she's going to go ahead and choose what I would classify as the deeper love but the more temporary love. Definitely, there's a love triangle. And it wasn't until you said that term out loud that I realized that's a pretty complicated position.”
When viewers last saw Simon in season 1, he learned that Maddie is still alive in the real world (even though it's Janet’s spirit in Maddie’s body)—leading him to think he’s crazy and having made this whole afterlife story up. But what’s next for the two of them?
Ventura suspects there will be “a lot of scenes” in the high school with Maddie pleading to an unresponsive Simon, who doesn't want to give into what he believes to be his psyche coping with grief:
“I suspect that they're gonna have a lot of scenes in the high school where she's standing in front of him, and she's yelling at him, 'You're not crazy.' And he has to mute her and shut her out. And, and say, 'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're not real, you're not real.' But through that shield, that distance, she has to be able to reach and connect to him. I think it's actually going to put the weight on Maddie. How can you convince someone that they aren't insane? I don't know. That's her homework.”
Outside of his relationship with Maddie’s spirit, Kristian Ventura confidently declared that “Simon is on the hunt” for his best friend in the living world—though the actor isn't sure if he’ll be going at it alone or enlisting help:
“Simon is on the hunt... He's going. I know he's going. He might not have a helmet or kneepads, but he's headed in the direction, and he's gonna find her. The only thing Is that I don't know if he's going to seek out help. If he's going to deploy help from Xavier, or Nicole, or Claire, I don't know if he's going to try to go solo because he's so within himself [in his head], embarrassed of having imagining her. So it's either he goes alone, or he goes with others, but he's gonna have a spear in his hand, and he's gonna get his best friend back.”
When asked about what other actors he’d love to have more scenes with in Season 2, Ventura quickly pointed to Maria Dizzia, who plays Maddie’s mother:
“So the first is the actress who plays Maddie's mother, Sandra, Maria Dizzia, she is a hell of an actress... I don't even know how to explain it. You're watching her. And the way she moves with her voice... she literally controls the air around her. And I'm like, I didn't learn that in drama school. How do you control the air? She's like an 'Avatar' Airbender. It's amazing. I would want to do more scenes with her just for selfish actor reasons.”
His second choice was Spencer Harrison’s Xavier, whom the actor admitted to being a fan of the character’s bromance with Simon:
“My second response is, I need more scenes with Xavier. Spencer Harrison, Maddie's ex-boyfriend? I think that him and Simon make a good duo in terms of two young men just trying to get to the bottom of things. Let's break into the police station. Let's figure this problem out at the school dance. I like their bromance.”
The entire interview can be seen below:
What's Next for Maddie & Her Friends?
Maddie and Simon will inevitably come together and mend the break between them. But it could be some time until that happens—Simon will probably need to confront Maddie-Janet in the real world first.
Until then, though, Wally will be there for Maddie in the afterlife. There's already something between the duo, which will grow more now that she doesn't have Simon to lean on.
More pressing, however, is that the two of them will have their hands full with figuring out what Mr. Martin is up to.
It wouldn't be surprising if the afterlife and real-world storylines are almost entirely separate for a good chunk of Season 2.
As for when fans will see new episodes, Ventura previously told The Direct that production might get underway in Summer 2024. This would mean new episodes could debut in early 2025.
School Spirits is now streaming on Paramount+ and Netflix.
