The Direct spoke with School Spirits executive producers Oliver Goldstick, Megan Trinrud, and Nate Trinrud where they discussed the eventful Season 2 finale—and addressed Wally's fate.
There was a lot to digest from the big finale, including Simon getting stuck in the afterlife, Maddie making it back to the living, and Janet sticking around despite the choice of moving on (a decision Jess Garbor explained to The Direct).
But it was Wally who got thrown a curve ball when his golden door opened up in his scar, giving him the possibility of moving on as well. But the episode left it up in the air as to whether or not he went through it or not.
Did Wally Clark Move on In School Spirits Season 2 Finale?
"The Bottom Line Is, We Have to Open Doors..."
- The Direct: "My first question is just straight to the point: Is Milo Manheim's Wally gonna return [in Season 3]?"
Oliver Goldstick: "Oh, my God, you came right to the point. We feel like Wally took quite a journey this season, and we're not, you know, the bottom line is, we have to open doors... We are certain to answer certain questions and raise others.
So, this is something that was very intentional on our part. So the audience would go, Wait, is that his journey? This is a character who started as someone very specific in Season 1 and has really evolved. You've seen it, you've watched this person, and open doors of his own and deal with trauma that he would never even be able to deal with if it hadn't been for Maddie coming into this world.
So, we're not trying to be coy. We're just trying to be honest with you; it really is a question that we're not prepared to answer. We're going to just say to you, he definitely is on a precipice. He definitely has a place of making a choice
Nate Trinrud: I think that's the thing is, like, what choice would you make if you're finally allowed to leave somewhere, would you?
- The Direct: "Was there a particular moment that for Wally, was that really pivotal moment for him, for that door to open, kind of like Janet had her moment. What was Wally's big realization? Was it Maddie moving on and letting that happen?"
Megan Trinrud: "I think it was a culmination of a lot of things over the seasons, but especially Season 1, where we see that he has really opened himself up. And for lack of a better term, I think we see him growing up a little bit. I think he was this very specific caricature of an 80s jock, right?
He came from a time that wasn't necessarily the most open-minded. He kind of just, vibed without asking a lot of questions. And I think that in Season 2, he really shows up for the people around him and asks big questions of himself, allows himself to be vulnerable. And I think what we're seeing is he's growing and changing.
And I think that what this sort of door appearing for him is really that moment of him being able to say, I did a lot of work and I have changed and grown, but what now? What do I want? What is it that I want?
Nate Trinrud: I think that's one of the biggest things for Wally's character, is we see him, he's a person who shows up for other people, right? He played football for his mother. He was trying to please everyone and live up to some sort of identity. But we never really get to see Wally doing what he wants or taking charge of his own needs.
And so you almost wanted to be a little selfish, which is why, I think a big moment that happens is in Episode 7 where he really tells Maddie what he wants, which is, like, it might be impossible, and it may not land on your ear the way I want, but, I want you to stay and having to accept that you can really express your needs and what your wants are, and still may not get them. That's huge.
So, there's a lot of growth for Wally, [and] with him and Charlie too. And I just think that there's not one thing that unlocks these big breakthroughs for all of us, right? And these doors unlocking. It's a cumulative product.
School Spirits Executive Producers Offer More Season 3 Teases
"Should There Be a Future Be a Future of the Show, We Know Some New Ghosts We Will Be Meeting."
- The Direct: "I have to ask, and you're not gonna be able to say too much about this. But, you know, Season 2, the finale in particular, set up some really interesting, tantalizing teases about a bigger picture, [such as], why are there so many people dying at the school?"
Oliver Goldstick: Here's the thing, Russ, when you think about it... But it's not that many people. When you look at 50 years in a high school, there are kids [who die]. What's outrageous, probably, or at least very intriguing, is why in this school? People don't usually die on the campus of the school. They die in car accidents, etc, but to actually happen at the school, that's what we need to explore, and that's much of Season 3.
Nate Trinrud: We can't say too much, but like, there are things we've really discovered in Season 2, right? Like the hospital being this other kind of, ghost world, another hub, is a big expansion. Suddenly we're realizing, Split River isn't just about the ghost of high school. There are ghosts in other places, too. And are these places connected? Can you get between them? Can these people communicate?
There's so much to mind there that can only lead to even more expansion. So I think we really set ourselves up to keep exploring the lore of Split River and Split River High and to keep asking these questions about what happens after we go or when is life really over?
- The Direct: "Season 2 introduces even more people to this afterlife problem, loops them into the supernatural. What are the biggest challenges of figuring out, all right, who's next to be pulled into the circle, and what are the logistics? And, okay, how do they believe this?"
Oliver Goldstick: We have talked about that because, honestly, about those questions. There's others, we have that entire marching band out there. There are people who have died in the school that we have not exposed; We've not uncovered them yet. And really, we feel like there's more to happen.
We've already talked about this. Should there be a future to the show, we know some new ghosts we will be meeting. We've talked about people. So we do think the world can grow, and that's part of the joy of doing this series.
- The Direct: "Another fun hypothetical question: We got the hospital, we have the school. So in the future, if you guys could just choose any location, just for fun that you would really like to see, what would ghost accumulated over years or decades look like, and how would that be to explore, what's the location that you're like, I want here."
Nate Trinrud: Megan and I decided if we got stuck somewhere, we just want to be at the cinema. We just want to be stuck in a movie theater. Like, if we can go out, that's where we want to haunt. Because honestly, like endless entertainment.
- The Direct: The people in the school are kind of, you know, somewhat low-key miserable. But then you go to the cinema and everyone's like, 'No, I'm good, I don't need saving. I'm good. Just leave me alone.'
Megan Trinrud: I also think a hotel would be good because it's like a little ecosystem on its own. You know, there's always people around, and there's food, there's coffee, there's excitement. I feel like a hotel would be good.
Oliver Goldstick: Lots of custom changes because you can go through people's luggage.
- The Direct: "School Spirits White Lotus, is that what I hear?"
Megan Trinrud: The crossover we didn't know we needed.
Exploring Maddie's Scar In the Season 2 Finale
Everyone Else Explored Their Scars—Now It's Maddie's Turn
School Spirits Season 2 introduced the idea of scars in the afterlife. Basically, they are personal little hellscapes for each person, themed around how they died and the traumas associated with that.
While all of Maddie's friends got to see theirs, it wasn't until the Season 2 finale that Maddie was able to explore hers.
- The Direct: "One of the biggest moments, I think, in the finale, was finally getting to explore Maddie's scar. Can you just talk about exploring that and then just figuring out what exactly that was going to look like, because I mean, that is a huge culmination of her trauma throughout these whole two seasons."
Nate Trinrud: "I mean that scene, we were so excited to get to do. I mean, Megan and I are the children of an alcoholic, and so a lot of Maddie's dreams that comes from kind of our story. And I think you just always—Maddie walks her father, he drowned in the river. She feels like she's losing her mother.
And I think all you want to do is try and save your parents. Right? When they're in peril. You just want to save them. But that is sometimes unhealthy. And I think that, like Maddie, has her own kind of epiphany in this scar that she's sort of thrown into, which is that, like this horror that I found myself, I cannot save them, and if I do, I might lose myself."
Megan Trinrud: I think that for that performance too, it's like you're facing the worst versions of your fears. And I think part of what lets Maddie sort of get through that is her conversation with Mr. Anderson in Episode 6, that, it's so easy for us to see people as just their disease or just the one thing that's the bad thing they've done, but no one is just the worst thing they've ever done.
No one is defined by that. And it's part of growth is realizing, well, you can't save your parents. Also, you have to show them empathy and love, even though it's really hard sometimes.
- The Direct: "Season 2 is now complete and done. Looking back on it, what do you think was the hardest story beat of the season to kind of break into and figure out, in its final form, to really get what you wanted to cross?"
Oliver Goldstick: I mean, again, the challenge of making sure this ending was satisfying, without giving away too much, and hopefully opening a door that we could do Season 3, because we have more stories to tell. Mr. Martin was, again, we were playing with nuance, Russ, because Janet, Mr. Martin, both of these characters, throughout Season 2, we had executives constantly questioning us.
How we supposed to feel about her, how was supposed to feel about him, and we said, You're supposed to be like we feel in life. People are really complicated. The next episode, guess what? You might go, Fuck, I thought he was a villain, and now I really feel for this person, he was just misguided or a product of their time. And that's also what's fascinating about this show, is the collision of eras that people, somebody from the 1950s operating in 2025. That's a lot to wrap your head around.
Megan Trinrud: I think it's never bad to force people to think with an empathetic eye, you know, think like, why is somebody doing this? Why are they like this? Rather than just condemning them to be good or bad? That's important that we think, okay, let's hear the whole story and then make our judgment. And maybe we do make a judgment that, yeah, this guy sucks, but also he kind of sucks for a lot of reasons. You know, I think it's important to have that context.
The "Revelation" of Jess Gabor In School Spirits
"She Was a Revelation In the Audition..."
- The Direct: "Jess Gabor was a truly wonderful addition to this season. On your side of things, how freeing did it feel to finally be able to explore that character, now that you had someone to cast in the role and you could just dive as deep as you could? Because she was a faceless person in that first season.
Oliver Goldstick: Well, she was a revelation in the audition, and we all knew, honestly, from the get-go, she was in. We were praying she wasn't 47 years old. We weren't gonna like, meet somebody, because we have to audition off of the computer. You know, she was in New York, but the three of us were arrested by her.
We just thought, this is fantastic. And I think, I mean, it was also really weird that she and Nick [Pugliese], who plays Charlie, actually were college roommates. We had no idea... But the chemistry, you know, that's what's happened. This cast has grown exponentially, but they become a family, and we were really thrilled that she and Peyton worked together so beautifully to help create this character, this dynamism of Janet slash Maddie.
And I think once we knew there was this wonderful actor at our disposal, we wanted to take advantage of it, and that's why we didn't let her cross over at the end.
Megan Trinrud: It's a complicated needle to thread, too, because Janet, I mean, going in, we knew Janet's trajectory, right? We knew that she needed to be a little bit intimidating and mysterious and a little scary early in the season, and by the end, you have to care about her and love her and want what's the best for her and understand her.
And Jess is so great at embodying all of those things. And as soon as we met her, we knew this is a person we're going to root for. This is a character we're going to want to follow. And watching Peyton and Jess work together to create that character was such a magical experience because they really did lean on each other to make this fascinating person who's really complicated.
I've always loved Janet. From the time we started this process, it was exciting to know we'd eventually get to unmask her. Jess was a revelation.
School Spirits Season 2 is now streaming on Paramount+.
Fans should be sure to check out The Direct's interview with School Spirits star Kristen Ventura, where he teases how interesting it would be for Simon to finally meet Wally.
