Class is back in session.
With “School Spirits” returning for a new season on Wednesday, viewers are ready to dissect every storyline of the supernatural teen drama.
Before Season 3 airs, the cast of the beloved Paramount+ series looked back at some of the wildest theories they’ve heard from the fandom.
“There are some fans that they actually get what’s going to happen before we know it, word for word,” Kiara Pichardo, who plays Nicole, told The Post. “There is not many but there is always a few.”
“School Spirits” follows Maddie (Peyton List) “a teen girl stuck in the afterlife investigating her own mysterious disappearance; she goes on a crime-solving journey as she adjusts to school in the afterlife, but the closer she gets to the truth, the more secrets and lies she discovers,” per the synopsis.
Along the way, Maddie encounters other spirits in the afterlife at Split River High, including Wally (Milo Manheim), Rhonda (Sarah Yarkin), Janet (Jess Gabor), Charley (Nick Pugliese,) Quinn (Cihang Ma), Yuri (Miles Elliot) and Mr. Martin (Josh Zuckerman).
In the real world, Maddie’s friends including Nicole, Xavier (Spencer MacPherson), Simon (Kristian Ventura) and Claire (Rainbow Wedell), are on their own mission to help find out the truth.
Also in the mix are Maddie’s mom Sandra, portrayed by Maria Dizzia and high school teacher Mr. Anderson played by Patrick Gilmore.
“I had read about Simon getting stuck in the spirit world. Someone had mentioned that,” Pichardo added. “There was nothing that was leading to that. So the fact that they knew it before it came out, I thought that was pretty crazy.”
While MacPherson, 28, recalled: “I remember when, in season two, when Anderson’s body is taken over, there were some interesting theories as to who was possessed. And it made me rewatch the after episode and be like, ‘Oh, I could see that, I could see that!’”
For Elliot, the actor confessed he’s snuck onto a reddit page or two in order to gauge the audiences’ reactions.
“I remember I used to look at it right when season two was coming out, and then I was like, I have to get off this,” Elliot told The Post. “So I haven’t looked at it in maybe like two years, but I’ve said this before but season two, I remember when Yuri were it was getting introduced and throughout season two when it was coming out, everyone was convinced that he was a villain and was some like Big Bad, who had all the secrets and was going to destroy Charley and the world.”
He stated about his character, who was introduced as another student trapped in the afterlife at Split River High in season 2: “I thought that was so funny. Because I guess, you know, he is very quiet, so maybe he does read like that. So that was a pretty, pretty wild one that he’s some big, bad villain!”
Ma felt the same way when Quinn stepped on the scene last season as one of the band kids from the early 2000s, who was killed when the bus crashed on a competition day.
“I think the one that stuck out to me, maybe because I’m playing Quinn and therefore I care about it, was there were some people saying, ‘Oh, there’s just something off about Quinn. Quinn definitely did it. There’s just something weird about it!”
And the fandom theories date all the way back to the show’s inception.
“Just looking at season one, when they mentioned Janet in the first – what was it the first two episodes? No one noticed. Then at the end we find out who Janet actually is,” Pichardo detailed. “But you gotta look at everything. Everything means something and I love looking at the fan theories, and sometimes they get it correct.”
Meanwhile, Season 3 will see a new face haunt the halls of Split River — but as a very much alive and terrifying school principle.
Jennifer Tilly joined the cast as Dr. Deborah Hunter-Price and quickly felt right at home on the paranormal set.
“She was so lovely. So funny, on and off screen,” Ma gushed. “Just like a really awesome person. And I would show up on days when she worked, when I didn’t work, just didn’t see her work and that was really worth it.”
“She was so professional and she was also so enthusiastic,” Elliot recounted. “I remember one of the first days I was on set with her, with everyone, we all took a photo together. She was like, ‘Let’s take a photo.’ So she was so excited to be there. And I think everyone was so excited to have her. So it just was so fun and a really cool treat this season.”
“She’s phenomenal,” Wedell, 24, expressed. “Everything she does, I just watch in awe. She is incredible with all of her line deliveries, as well. Just listening to her, she really uses her voice well to portray this moody, scary side of her.”
“She also will just toss in like ad-libs,” MacPherson chimed in. “It’s really, really cool because it keeps you on your toes. You have to be ready to spar because she’ll just randomly throw in the funniest thing you’ve ever heard.”
Looking back at his time on set with Tilly, 67, Zuckerman, 40, said: “Jennifer’s character brings such a like a delicious antagonistic force to it. Jennifer’s character brings an incredible dynamic so it’s really fun to watch.”
As for what made Tilly say yes in the first place, the queen of horror told The Post: “I love the show.”
“The writing is fantastic,” the “RHOBH” star gushed. “All the actors are amazing. And I was just very pleased to be a part of this cult show, especially coming off of ‘Chucky.’ My ‘Chucky’ fans were very disappointed because there was no more ‘Chucky’ for a while. And they were all huge fans of ‘School Spirits.’”
Tilly starred in “The Bride of Chucky,” (1998), “Seed of Chucky” in 2004, “Curse of Chucky” (2013), “Cult of Chucky” in 2017 and then the series “Chucky” from 2021 to 2024.
“I felt like I brought that whole fan base over to me, like, ‘Come with me, I’m going to be on another super cool show.’ But I love the character of Dr. Hunter-Price. I like that she’s slightly evil or more than slightly evil, and every week I was so excited to get the script to see what was going to happen to her,” she said. ‘It’s fun to play this kind of characters. She’s greedy and narcissistic and she’s a bad mother. And then horrific things happen further along in the season, which I think are very satisfying.”
Giving the audience one teeny, tiny, tease, Tilly added: “There is a thing that happens to her which is so balls to the wall. I couldn’t even believe that I got to play this particular scenario out. So it’s just really fun to play this character as she is towards the end of the season.”
Season 3 of “School Spirits” hits Paramount+ on Wednesday, Jan. 28.
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