School Spirits Season 3 just wrapped up its third season with an eventful episode that saw several storylines come to a close.
Warning - The rest of this article contains spoilers for School Spirits Season 3 finale.
Kristian Ventura's Simon and Peyton List's Maddie both made it out of the afterlife at the same time and were finally reunited. This led to them getting what seemed to be a happy ending for the duo, who have been the emotional core of the show since its start.
However, it doesn't work out for everyone. There was a big cliffhanger after all, with Van Heidt taking over the body of Maddie's mother, unbeknownst to her. And then there's the fact that Wally, Janet, Don, and Maddie's father are all stuck in the after-afterlife. Besides that, everything seems great for everyone: the ghosts can go freely, Maddie and Simon are back alive, and everyone's reunited.
School Spirits star Kristian Ventura sat down with The Direct's Russ Milheim to break down Season 3's oddly happy ending and how the love story of Maddie and Simon once had a different trajectory.
When it came to Simon's final scene of the season with Maddie, Ventura noted that "everything felt so wrong" because it was so happy. They were both back from the afterlife, and things seemed to be working out. Nobody was "Screaming for help" or was "close to death." "It was too perfect," Ventura added.
Season 3 made it clear that School Spirits was investing heavily into the love story between Maddie and Milo Manheim's Wally. However, fans were convinced that Seasons 1 and 2 were setting up a love story between Simon and Maddie. Though even by the end of the show's third season, Wally doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
"There are scenes where Maddie and Simon just flat out say, 'I love you,'" Ventura pointed out. The actor also shared how he "think[s] that they changed it." He described the love between the two as that "need love, and you don't really want to pull yourself apart from the person that you can't live without."
The School Spirits star doubled down, explaining how he "[does] think originally they were supposed to be romantic, but it's changed."
School Spirit's Season 3 Finale Might Have Ended Too Well
Everything Seemed Great, Which Probably Means the Opposite Is True.
- The Direct: "I want to make sure to talk about the big moment that you know all three seasons have been building towards. What was it like to actually be able to make physical contact with Maddie, that hug, and just that reunion? What was that moment like?"
Kristian Ventura: I just remember feeling Peyton's shoulders and being like, 'Whoa, I haven't felt this in a while.' I was just like, 'Whoa. This is her body.' Oh, oh, hey, Peyton.' It was so foreign. I think we do hug in the afterlife, Scar, too. But I have to admit, when we filmed the movie theater scene, which is, I think, Simon's final scene for Season 3, everything felt so wrong.
Like, it was just too perfect. Like we're talking about horror movies again, I'm back in my body, she's back in hers. We're eating popcorn, and life is enjoyable. I thought, 'This does not feel right.' Usually, we're screaming for help, and one of us is close to death. It just felt so—I was filming, and I'll go, Peyton, what the fuck is going on? This is a utopia. I don't know. We have a good cliffhanger from that at the end of the third season, but definitely, when the world is all buttered up, and we have pink skies and sunshine, it feels unlike 'School Spirits.'
Simon & Maddie's Love Story Changed Course
"I Do Think They Were Supposed to Be Romantic..."
- The Direct: "I'm wondering, in your thoughts, do you think that the relationship between Simon and Maddie is truly just a deep friendship, or are there kind of romantic possibilities within that dynamic?"
Kristian Ventura: When I watch the show over, and I review the first two seasons, there are scenes where Maddie and Simon just flat out say, 'I love you.' 'I love you, Maddie, I have to confess it.' 'I love you' in the classroom, Season 1, by the window, 'I love you.' And in the finale, Episode 2 in the theater, it's Simon. 'I need to tell you something. I have always loved you.'
So I feel like the proper PR response is actually to say, 'Oh, you know, it's, they're just best friends. It's not a love triangle.' I, personally, actually, as much as I've told every single press my whole life, 'No, they're just friends. I don't believe it.' All right, I'm just gonna say it now, in 2026, I absolutely do. I absolutely do. And I think that they changed it. I think that the writers changed it because the way it will always has been set up, and you could intuitively feel in it in the first season is these guys, regardless of what romance that she could find in the afterlife, Maddie and Simon, that is not just friendship love or romantic love, that is need love and you don't really want to pull yourself apart from the person that you can't live without.
So, to be honest, Russ, to put it plainly, I do think originally they were supposed to be romantic, but it's changed. It surprised me. I don't know if it would be better. I just know that I felt that they sort of sidelined it. You know what was the most hilarious thing?
I just did this interview, and I was so caught off guard. The balls on this interviewer. They said, Hey, Kristian, what's it like being sidelined by Milo or something like that? It was like, 'What are your reactions to the fans saying that your love with Maddie was just completely thrown out the window?' And I was just like, wow. So people really feel that. And I was just, I think I responded like, 'oh, you know, you know, Simon wasn't sidelined. It's just a different kind of love.' But in a way, I think, like with the writing of the show, it absolutely changed. It was one of those unspoken things, too.
Ventura added that he "recall[ed] speaking to one of the creators of the show," who said that "Wally was temporary:"
Ventura: Though I actually do recall speaking to one of the creators of the show, [and] I remember him saying that Wally was temporary, but through the shifts of what Paramount has done, it just changed. And I'd love to know what the writers really intended, and just to have that explained in a fourth season. And, yeah, I think a fourth season would be great. It would be chaos. It'd be so much fun.
While Simon and Maddie aren't off the table just yet, Ventura offered another alternate, intriguing pairing: Simon and Janet.
Ventura: I can't tell if, as the show goes on, you just sort of just want to put people together, just for the hell of it. But honestly, Simon and Janet seem to make the most sense to me. They got along well, and they do share a pretty intimate moment in the beginning episode of this third season, something about them is pretty effortless. It might be. I don't know what it is. Their problem-solving or their selflessness. They have something intelligent that they can match each other pretty well. I feel like Simon would be a good pair with Janet, but I don't know if I'm just throwing in the towel at this point.
School Spirits star Kristian Ventura's interview with The Direct can be seen below:
