Paramount+ isn’t ready to exorcise School Spirits just yet. After a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, the Awesomeness TV series starring Peyton List has officially been renewed for a third season on the streaming platform, meaning there will be answers to come about what happened to Maddie and her friends. The announcement came with a new video that shows a panicked Maddie running as the lights in Split River High all turn red, hinting at far more supernatural happenings and more mysteries to solve about the town. Viewers will get to return to the haunted town in 2026.
A renewal isn’t much of a shock after the spectral teen series enjoyed a strong viewership throughout Season 2. The season premiered to an average audience of 3.9 million in its first 28 days, a +94% increase from Season 1, which showed that School Spirits is only gaining more momentum. Reviews continued to be very positive overall too from both critics and audiences, with a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from the former and a 93% from the latter. Collider’s Kelcie Matson gave the latest season a 7/10 in their review, giving particularly high praise to List’s performance and writing “List remains every bit as riveting if not more so.” The series star shared the screen with Kristian Ventura, Spencer MacPherson, Kiara Pichardo, Sarah Yarkin, Nick Pugliese, Rainbow Wedell, Josh Zuckerman, and Milo Manheim.
After Season 1 first introduced Maddie Nears as she investigated her disappearance while stuck in the afterlife, Season 2 opens in the immediate aftermath with the ghostly teen seeking a way to take back her stolen life. Now armed with the knowledge that her body was possessed by another spirit named Janet (Jess Gabor), she and her afterlife friends unite to return her to the land of the living, facing their own darkest moments along the way. Their latest journey also packs plenty of twists and turns as they seek more answers. Nick and Megan Trinrud created the series and serve as co-showrunners and executive producers alongside Pretty Little Liars producer Oliver Goldstick. With Season 3 on the way, Awesomeness and Nickelodeon‘s Head of Live-Action Scripted Series and Film Shauna Phelan gave a statement offering high praise for the creative team for their ability to create compelling teen drama within an otherworldly setting, saying:
“We are so thrilled to bring SCHOOL SPIRITS back to our devoted audiences for another season of masterful storytelling brought to life by Peyton List and the incredible cast. Co-showrunners Oliver Goldstick, Nate Trinrud and Megan Trinrud have an exceptional ability to capture the complexity and nuance of the teen experience, while also keeping audiences on their toes with the unexpected mystery, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for the students of Split River High next season.”
‘School Spirits’ Season 2 Left a Lot of Questions to Answer for Season 3
While Season 2 closed a significant chapter in Maddie’s story by finally reuniting her with her body, the creative team also left a lot of threads to tie up in future seasons. Given the connections she’s made among her afterlife pals, her story and theirs are far from over with more mysteries to solve around Split River. Regarding all the questions about Simon (Ventura), the school, and the town as a whole, Nate Trinrud told Collider‘s Christina Radish in an interview about the finale “You’ll have to tune in to find out,” and that “Something is going on in Split River. We’ve gotta get to the bottom of it.” Goldstick took that a step further, adding about Trinrud’s Split River tease, “That’s a preview for Season 3. There is a legacy of that school that we have to explore. It’s gotta be cracked open, and Simon may be able to do it from the inside, so to speak.”
School Spirits returns for Season 3 next year. In the meantime, all of Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream now on Paramount+.
via Collider