School Spirits Season 2 will be darker than the first and will dive deeper into the supernatural elements, which makes perfect sense given how the first season ended.
The Paramount+ original follows Peyton List's Maddie Nears, who finds herself stuck in the afterlife, more specifically, one contained within the walls of her high school. The problem is that she has no idea how she got there and doesn't remember dying in the first place.
The reason, as revealed in Season 1's twist ending, is that another spirit hijacked her body at a point when she was most vulnerable. This means that while Maddie's spirit was booted to the afterlife, her body is alive and well with a new host: the mysterious Janet.
School Spirits Season 2 Is About to Turn Things Up to Eleven
The Direct's Russ Milheim spoke with the cast of School Spirits at New York Comic Con (NYCC), where they teased how Season 2 will be different from the first.
Nick Pugliese, who plays Charley, teased that Season 2 "is a lot spookier, a lot darker, a lot more intense, and it's funny:"
"I think this season is a lot spookier, a lot darker, a lot more intense, and it's funny because I think in Season 1, Sarah [Yarkin] and I would always improv and laugh and make each other break. And this season, there wasn't much time to do that. The scenes were so quick and intense that there was not a lot of ad-libbing a joke, and there was no breaking."
Nate Trinrud, one of the co-creators of the show, noted that the story will now see the ghosts "taking action" and figuring out "why some things happened to them last season:"
"Season 1 was a lot about asking questions, trying to figure out what happened to Maddie, and really Maddie having a look at all the people in her life and figuring out what's going on with all of them. I think Season 2 is taking that information and those discoveries that our ghosts had, that our living friends had, that Maddie had, and taking action. So they're all pursuing how to sort of work through these issues [to] figure out the reasons why some things happened to them last season."
The other co-creator of School Spirits, Megan Trinrud, added how Season 2 will "dive a little deeper into the supernatural elements of the ghost world:"
"I also think just based on the finale, we do dive a little deeper into the supernatural elements of the ghost world. So that's very fun. We just get to learn a little bit more about the school and a little bit more about all the history of the ghosts, and that's been kind of a fun evolution for us."
Oliver Goldstick, the showrunner of School Spirits, feels that "urgency is the keyword" when it comes to this new season:
"I think urgency is the keyword... Because of how Season 1 ended, Mr. Martin is a devious character to them, and I think all of them are impacted by his actions. So suddenly, they're on the same team, and they all have a mystery to solve, not just Maddie, but their own, because they basically bought into something counterfeit. So they sort of discovered that as the season goes along, by revisiting some of their own traumas, what they've been asked to do."
Goldstick continued, noting how when the afterlife residents try "to reunite Maddie with her body, these guys get reunited with their spirits:"
"So that's one of the reasons I think the season just globally is different, and then when we get into a how and why, and you sort of start questioning, what were the machinations, why and what's the ultimate end goal? While trying to reunite Maddie with her body, these guys get reunited with their spirits. Though they are spirits, we're also finding the damaged spirits along the way."
Season 1 ended on several massive notes, one of which was the reveal that something shady was going on with Josh Zuckerman's Mr. Martin.
"We're gonna learn a lot about him," Megan confirmed, adding how he "has a very complicated past with all of these characters:"
"We're gonna learn a lot about him... about who he is, where he has been both in life and in death. It's really fun because Josh Zuckerman is an incredible actor, and he really brought [this character] to life. He really brought so much to the development of Mr. Martin, and he helped inform us about how we wrote the storyline... [Mr. Martin is a] very complex person... who has a very complicated past with all of these characters, and so it's going to be a lot of them examining their past with him as well... It's going to be really fun to watch it unfold."
The other big twist of Season 1 was that Janet, a spirit who had ties with Mr. Martin but audiences never met, actually hijacked Maddie's body, ejecting her to the afterlife.
This discovery "has an effect on all of our cast," Nate confirmed, adding how all of a sudden, Maddie's struggles now affect everyone instead of just her:
"It has an effect on all of our cast. So the living world kids suddenly are being asked to believe maybe that something outrageous has gone on while the ghosts who spent all of Season 1 watching Maddie sort of uncover what happened to her suddenly realized the answer to that question implicates all of them because now they've all been victims of the same person two different ways."
Megan added how right as Season 2 starts, everyone will be questioning what they thought they knew:
"And these from the first episode of season two, they're all––It's kind of right out of the gate, like, who is this person we thought we knew? And what do we do? What do we do with that information? So it's, it's fun."
Season 1, which was left off with Simon, played by Kristian Ventura, convinced that all of the stuff with Maddie was happening in his head, and none of it was real. So, how will Maddie be able to convince him otherwise?
"You're basically asking a character to choose something over pragmatism," Ventura explained, adding how it's "a hard thing to ask:"
"You're basically asking a character to choose something over pragmatism... You're basically asking someone, you're saying, go insane, and believe me, it's a hard thing to ask... He's objective. He has a photo. He sees her. So, what is stronger enough than the mind? Well, it's right here, her love, and their love has to be strong enough for him to say, I'll reconnect with you personally. You can't really deny physical proof. So she really has to pull, and it's tough. She has a mission. I don't know how she's gonna do it. I mean, I know [laughs]."
The actor went on to explain how Simon will be looking for Janet in the early parts of Season 2:
"Season 2, I got a sense, even just reading the first couple of episodes, there's a bit of a competitive edge here because Simon's looking for Janet, right? Janet's not stupid. She's got a mastermind of her own. And so if you plot out everything that Simon does in Season 2, it's win, lose, win, lose, loss, loss, loss, loss. He can't keep up with her. He just goes home failing a lot of the time... In Season 2, the adventures, the areas in Split River he has to drive to, and the things that he has to hold get crazier and crazier all season long. She's good at hide and seek."
Megan added to Ventura's thoughts, noting how they "expand the real world too. We see more of Split River" and "see more of the outside world."
Ventura explained how Simon's "first instinct is to really hate her" while also adding that "Peyton [List] did a really good job" portraying Janet in Season 2:
"My first instinct is to really hate her because it's really hard to justify taking over someone and then killing them... Janet is gonna win the audience. She's great. And Peyton [List] did a really good job. Incredible."
Another storyline in Season 1 was how Nick Pugliese's Charley finally gets a letter to Emilio, someone he loved while he was alive.
On how it plays out further in Season 2, "we explore it more," the actor confirmed:
"I mean, I think that the core of it is, what does it look like moving on from this relationship and this person that he's trying to leave behind, and what does that look like? How can he move forward? A lot of it really is like loving yourself. How does that then show up, and how do you show up better? So yes, we explore it more."
As for Ronda's storyline in Season 2, Sarah Yarkin thinks "the big challenge for this character is to learn how to trust people:"
"I think the big challenge for this character is to learn how to trust people, how to open up, and how uncomfortable that is. So that was an exercise for me to see, like how I would open up, but how would Rhonda? How weird must it be? It's been 60-plus years of her never opening up, so I think that was a big thing this season for her."
The full interviews can be seen below:
School Spirits is now streaming on Paramount+ and Netflix.
Season 2 was previously announced to be releasing this Fall, but the show does not appear to be making that window. An Early 2025 premiere is now expected.
