The second season of School Spirits has kept Paramount+ viewers on the edge of their seats. Now that Maddie knows Janet hijacked her body, the floodgates have been wide open for all kinds of afterlife twists and turns. But before fans see how it all resolves, how did the show get here? Just how much happened — on screen and off — to get to this point?
CBR spoke with executive producers Megan Trinrud, Nate Trinrud and Oliver Goldstick to discuss the anatomy of School Spirits Season 2. The trio talked about some of their storytelling decisions that have made the series such a fun supernatural drama. Plus, they reveal how much star and producer Peyton List has brought to the table, and why there’s a timely element to Maddie’s story.
CBR: What were the elements you wanted to touch on in School Spirits Season 2? Once you knew you were getting a second season, were there particular story avenues you were really excited to go down?
Nate Trinrud: Definitely, yes. One big thing we get to do is we really get to dive deeper into our living characters. For Season 1, a lot of them were suspects in Maddie’s big mystery. And so getting to know them in a deeper way we had to limit, so that they were still suspicious. This season, we really get to develop those characters more and watch them not just grow, but really get closer to one another.
Oliver Goldstick: This plight that Maddie has this season is mind-blowing for the dead as well. This has not happened before. So for them also to even question, could they do this? Could they hijack a body? The idea of what you’re giving up in this show is big — what you’re forfeiting when you want to solve something. What are you going to lose in the process? It’s an ongoing, recurring theme for all these characters, and I think that the relationships in the afterlife are really deepening in this season.
Megan Trinrud: As writers, it’s fun to take Season 1 and see the actors who are playing off of each other. See those relationships where you’re like, oh my gosh, I love Simon and Xavier together. How can we put them together more? Let’s see that they have such great chemistry. Just from a general standpoint, that’s a really fun part of Season 2, is getting to take these incredible actors and put them in different formations and see them play off of each other.
You introduce some new characters in Season 2. What’s the process of that, in terms of knowing when it’s right to add someone to the mix, and making them fit into the story organically considering the premise?
RelatedSchool Spirits is a teen drama fans loved from Season 1 and has resulted in many questions during the wait for Season 2.
Megan Trinrud: We kind of set them up in Season 1. We try to be really intentional when we add a new face or a new name. We don’t want it to come out of nowhere. We’ve talked a lot about how do we find new characters in this world, because it’s such a contained space. It’s been kind of a fun challenge to figure out how we can grow the world and grow the characters without making it be like, oh, there just happens to be a new spirit who nobody realized was here before. There are at least three new faces in the afterlife this season. But we did set them up, just subtly set them up.
Nate Trinrud: We do have one new living character, too. We get to meet Nicole’s brother Diego this season.
Megan Trinrud: It’s always great to dig into the lives of these living characters. It’s fun to say, what do their families look like? What are their homes like? What do we not know about them, and what can we learn about them?
Goldstick: I think the Janet character is so seminal to this second season, because obviously, to get this person back, to lure them back, they have to know who this is, and why Janet would do this. Why would she hijack Maddie’s body? These are kids from different eras, and she’s a ’50s teenager who was brilliant, and quite frankly, could not have fulfilled the dreams she had because of the period she was born [in].
We talk about this in the writers room too. If you’re born 60 years ago, could you have been authentic? Could you have been who you are now? And I think his season gave us a wonderful platform to explore that, and for even Maddie to examine that. Because could a brilliant 17-year-old girl have the same opportunities in 1959 that she could have in 2025? We [explore] it from all different elements and all different aspects.
Fundamentally, School Spirits comes back to Janet and Maddie, portrayed so well by Cobra Kai star Peyton List. What was it like to work with Peyton for another season and collaborate with her on furthering Maddie’s journey as an individual?
Megan Trinrud: It’s such a delight to work with Peyton, because she’s one of those people who is like yeah, let’s do it. Let’s try it. Let’s see where we go with it. She’s really open to even what might look like kind of a crazy plot twist on paper, and she brings such depth to the character. I feel like she truly understands both of these characters in a really beautiful way, so that you are always connecting [with them]. She’s playing Maddie and she’s playing Janet to a certain extent. She gives them such nuance.
Nate Trinrud: She’s an outstanding talent. She is such a good actor. In this season, I think we see her in a way that we that even tops her performance from last season. But she’s also a producer on the show, and she’s such a creative ally for the three of us. Getting to work with her is a real treat, and she’s such an incredible leader on set… We make this show really quickly. It is fast and furious, and Peyton’s never missed a line. She always shows up ready to go. And she’s an inspiration, not just [to] us, but to the entire cast and crew.
Megan Trinrud: She understands that this is a strong ensemble, and she loves that about the show. I think she loves the fact that Maddie’s story also enhances the stories of these characters around her, and that’s really important.
Goldstick: She’s a trooper. You notice [when] an actor shows up for other people’s scenes, and just want to sit and watch, how invested they are, not just in their colleagues, but in the series… We have that going on a lot too, and that that’s testament to the dedication and emotional investment Peyton’s given.
Is there anything else that you particularly have loved about School Spirits or about Season 2 in particular?
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Goldstick: When we got together to do this, I don’t think Nate and Megan even were aware of how resonant the metaphor was because of COVID… I had two teenagers who had to go back to school after living in their bedrooms for a year, or however long… My boys did not know how to navigate high school when they went back wearing masks. They didn’t know necessarily who they could trust. When you can’t read faces, you can’t necessarily communicate the same way.
So I think Nate and Megan had landed on something. The show picked up on this idea of who can you trust? Is what I see, what I think I see? Are my friends, really my friends? And the invisibility factor being a very powerful metaphor for a lot of people at that time.
Megan Trinrud: The thing I’m always wanting to talk about is the music, because we have so much fun finding new, interesting music for the show. I think we had a really good time connecting with fans last season on some of the needle drops. It was really fun to watch the reaction to the music. It’s something we don’t get asked about all that often, but the three of us are really passionate about the music that goes into the show.
Nate Trinrud: Our music supervision team of Sarah [Chapeck] and Whitney [Pilzer] are incredible. Fans love the soundtrack. It’s a big part of our show.
School Spirits streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
Release Date
March 9, 2023
Writers
Nate Trinrud, Megan Trinrud, Oliver Goldstick
