The supernatural situation gets weirder for the undead teens in season three of School Spirits
High school is a death trap.
No one sees that more clearly than Oliver Goldstick, the executive producer of high school murder mysteries Pretty Little Liars and School Spirits. “The stakes are high. People are trying on identities. Their secrets feel so huge,” he says. “You look back and go, ‘The exposure of that secret would’ve killed me.’ You know what? It wouldn’t have. You would have survived, but it doesn’t feel like that when you’re living it.”
High school is also a time when you are dying to be acknowledged, while simultaneously praying you don’t stand out. “What I loved about what [School Spirits series and graphic novel creators] Nate [Trinrud], Megan [Trinrud] and I had discussed about the source material was that it was a girl who pinballs between wanting to be seen and not be seen,” says Goldstick. “Because of an alcoholic parent, she didn’t want people at school asking too many questions. She didn’t want people noticing her on many days. I thought, we don’t write about this a lot from a young person’s point of view, but there are many young people parenting their parents.”
Goldstick isn’t the only one who believes School Spirits transcends the mystery genre. On the surface, the series follows teenage student Maddie (Peyton List), who in season one discovers that she has joined a group of spirits at her high school, but, unlike the other ghosts that roam the corridors of Split River High School, Maddie can’t remember how she died. To help her understand who murdered her, she enlists undead students Charley (Nick Pugliese), Rhonda (Sarah Yarkin), Wally (Milo Manheim) and science teacher Mr. Martin (Josh Zuckerman), in turn helping them figure out why they still linger in this place between Earth and a final resting place. “To me, the show is about trauma,” says Manheim. “It is about how unfinished business can really weigh on you heavily, and you have to deal with it to move forward. It’s crazy that the creators have taken a show with that as the message and created such a fun, oftentimes nostalgic-feeling show.”
In their brief time together, dead high school footballer Wally and Maddie have managed to become the couple to root for, but their relationship gets complicated in the third season with Maddie having been reunited with her terrestrial body. Additionally, when given the opportunity to cross over, there is clearly something holding Wally back. “Although Wally and Maddie really haven’t known each other for that long, considering he has known other people for 40 years in the afterlife, I think he cares more for her than anything in his life or death,” says Manheim. “And there are things that he needs to help her figure out.”
Having worked so hard for a return to normal, Maddie now finds herself overwhelmed. First, she needs to deal with the consequences of having body-swapped with 1950s student Janet (Jess Gabor), who last season wreaked havoc in modern day Split River. “There was the police investigation and a number of questions about Maddie’s absence — which got so messed up once Janet was interviewed,” says Goldstick. And then there is the emotional toll of returning home. “It was supposed to be this thing she wanted so badly,” says List. “And when she finally gets it, she realizes how much she’s fallen in love with all of these people she’s had to leave behind.”
The ghost crew certainly isn’t ready to say goodbye to their new friend. “Maddie arriving to the afterlife just made things click that hadn’t clicked for up to 60 years, in every single character,” says Manheim. “Wally did not change very much from the day he died to when Maddie joins us on that side. And then, within a really short amount of time, he does what feels like an eternity of growing just because of her being there.” Lucky for them, the biggest mystery of all is far from being solved.
It’s a storyline that deviates from the source material. In fact, Maddie’s homecoming at the end of the second season could easily have offered the closure viewers were looking for. “We could have ended it there,” concedes Goldstick. “The graphic novel never explored the mythology of the school.” But why close the book when there are still so many questions left unanswered? “‘What’s going on with this school?’ came up in the writer’s room multiple times. Why are so many kids dying here?” says Goldstick. “We had talked about whether there is mythology to the school we want to explore. This was the season we could do that, because last season was so much about getting Maddie’s body back, which was enough of a concept for people to wrap their heads around.”
The new season promises lots of intrigue about the origins of Split River and its effect on its people. Somehow, as Maddie returns to the living, her best friend Simon (Kristian Ventura) has ended up on the other side — but we know he isn’t dead, so why is he there? And Maddie’s ex-boyfriend Xavier (Spencer MacPherson) finds himself forging a bond between Maddie and a deceased loved one. “In season one, we met someone that was selfish and a bit lost, and through his near-death experience, and his eyes opening to this other world in season two, it’s as though he’s become someone that’s found purpose,” says MacPherson.
The Canadian actor also subscribes to the fact that School Spirits is not really a whodunit. “I would say this show is about things not being what they seem,” says MacPherson. “Our characters, they’re all presenting one way, and they’re revealed to have hidden depth.” It is that sleight of hand that continues to thrill Goldstick, especially within this genre. “You fall in love with people you didn’t expect to root for,” he says. “We love the idea of layers, where every couple of episodes, you change lanes and the audience goes, ‘Wait, what’s their story?’ It’s a lot of fun to write that.”
School Spirits, streaming on Paramount+