“School Spirits,” protagonist Maddie (Peyton List) wakes up one day to discover she’s a ghost — and, possibly even more disconcertingly, she’s trapped in her high school forever. Paramount+ will premiere the series on March 9. Ghosts see everything and can even leave their graves forever.
List, despite playing the ghost role onscreen, doesn’t enjoy thinking that ghosts could be walking among us. “I feel like the mind is so powerful. I prefer to say no,” POPSUGAR is a conversation with the 24-year old star. “I don’t let any of that in, because I think the mind can just run and create a reality. I’m going to try to keep telling myself no . . . even though weird things keep happening to me and to people around me.”
Her costar Sarah Yarkin — who plays fellow ghost Rhonda — also says she’s a “nonbeliever” — even though Nick Pugliese, who introduces Maddie to the spirit world as friendly ghost Charley, claims Yarkin has “the most insane stories” She is open to the possibility of something supernatural, even though she remains skeptical. Pugliese for his part accepts all the ambiguity. “I lean more towards no, but I’m not set on that,” He says. “I’m OK with that, too. I don’t need a ghost to show itself.”
Unlike List and Yarkin, who seem to be actively trying to avoid the supernatural even as it taps on their windows, their costar Kristian Flores — who plays one of Maddie’s closest living friends, Simon — is a bit more open to the belief, even though he hasn’t seen a spirit with his own eyes. “I’ve never met a ghost. I’ve never seen one,” He says. “I wish I had. Because there are so many books and conversations about it — I kind of just [think] it’s real.”
Kiara Pichardo plays Maddie’s friend Nicole and says that ghosts do exist. “I lived in a haunted apartment in Queens, NY, when I was a kid,” Sie says. “Thankfully, I don’t remember too much.” Spencer MacPherson — Maddie’s boyfriend, Xavier, on the show — also believes he may have encountered a spirit from the great beyond. “I’ve had some interesting experiences that I feel like it’s tough to explain away,” He laughs. “Just little bumps in the night. Or it’s colder than it should be — you know, seeing breath, and all the tropes that you see in the movies. Come the witching hour, when you’re seeing your breath and and you’re in a tropical climate — it’s strange.” Rainbow Wedell is the actress who portrays Claire. “I definitely believe in ghosts,” Sie says.
This seems to be the case with “School Spirits” There is a split between them in regards to believing that the dead are walking among us. The ones who believe certainly aren’t the first stars to do so — celebrities like Demi Lovato and Octavia Spencer have relayed encounters with the undead, sometimes in vivid detail.
“School Spirits,” Ghosts don’t exist as eerie, evil monsters that cause things to go bump at night. Instead they are just people trying to find meaning in their lives. For the writers of Ghostbusters, ghosts can be used as storytelling and metaphors rather than hypotheticals. You can read the rest of this article. “School Spirits,” Maddie’s mom is alcoholic. Megan Trinrud, Nate and Megan Trinrud took inspiration from their father’s struggles to write the story. The Siblings “ended up having to move back to our small town in Illinois” Nate tells Nate that they will take care of their father. “We were stuck there for years.” He says that he and his younger sister started talking to each other about their feelings while they were still in their childhood bedrooms. “really dead inside. That was sort of the best way we could describe it.”
The Idea for “School Spirits” That feeling inspired me. “We took that idea and ran with it and actualized it — this idea of a girl who finds herself dead in her life and has to work . . . to try and recover,” He says. Ultimately, “School Spirits” isn’t about ghosts — it’s about “what it means to take the steps to try and find your way back to feeling alive.”
