Peyton List says she distinctly tailors her portrayal of her School Spirits character Maddie depending on whether she appears as her living self in flashback scenes, as a ghost in present-day or as her body inhabited by Janet, another doomed entity.
"But when it's 'flashback Maddie,' I guess I just slip into when everything was OK or sort of OK, at least, and then when she is [ghost] Maddie, I'm just thinking, 'Where is she exactly in figuring this whole thing out?'"
Season 1 of the show saw lonely, parentally neglected Maddie suddenly trapped with other students and a teacher who died in her high school over the course of 70 years.
As she navigates what she thinks is purgatory, her best friends Simon (Kristian Ventura) and Nicole (Kiara Pichardo), as well as her boyfriend Xavier (Spencer MacPherson), try to figure out why she vanished and if she is dead or alive.
At the end of Season 1, Simon and Nicole are shocked to see what appears to be Maddie backing a truck into Xavier, leaving him bleeding on the road, then taking off.It is later revealed that ghost Janet stole Maddie's body and left town, something Maddie's spirit community, including her new love interest Wally (Milo Manheim), never even knew was possible.
Manheim, 23, said he doesn't know what a happy ending might look like for modern Maddie and Wally, a teen football player who died in the 1980s.
"Obviously, the romance turns up a little bit, but also they just open up a little bit more with each other and I think that's what I really wanted in Season 1 and I'm really getting that in this one," he added. "I'm just really grateful to have Peyton on the other side. There were so many scenes where I'm just happy to have somebody I trust, so we can discuss things."
"Me, too!" List agreed.
"I'm not sure what the most optimistic outcome really would be," she said. "It's tragic because they are both so far apart."
The actress said the fact that the characters are still trying to figure out where they are and how to move on makes for a compelling viewing experience.
"That's what makes it so intoxicating -- knowing that you DON'T know what's going to happen to both of them, and so it's just even more fun," List added. "They can't stop because it's passion and they just have to go for it and be young."
"It tees up Season 2 really nicely because of the shock value of it from the audience perspective and the fact that there's so much runway from the get-go because there are so many questions," Zuckerman, 39, explained.
"It really brings Mr. Martin into the center of everyone's emotional lives," he added. "Really, it feels like everyone's storyline, everyone's fates are tied somehow to this teacher and there are a lot of questions as to how that could be, considering that they're all from different time periods and he is dead like them."
List said fans have told her they connect to the show because they've also experienced troubled relationships like Maddie does with her alcoholic single mom Sandra (Maria Dizzia).
"It makes me happy that they said it helped them get through some of those tough times and that's exactly why [writers] Megan and Nate Tinrud made this show," she added.
"It was kind of a light for them while they were struggling with that exact issue. So, it's cool to hear."
Manheim said he hears from people that they love Simon's dogged determination to find his bestie.
"That's something I loved in the first season and just watching the first three episodes [of Season 2], it's something that I'm really loving this time, as well," he added,
"We have tropes with these characters and, then, as you get to know them, you realize they're so different than what you thought," he said. "I love that. I think Megan and Nate do a really good job of creating real complex dynamics and problems."
"It really resonates," Zuckerman said. "I think that's a huge testament to the writing."