'School Spirits': Peyton List Dives Deep Into New Supernatural Drama on Paramount+ (Exclusive)

Maddie Nears is taking an unexpected trip to the afterlife in School Spirits, Paramount+'s new YA drama that proves purgatory and high school have a whole lot in common. Peyton List stars in the streamer's new series, which premieres Thursday, as Maddie, a teen who is searching for the truth about her untimely death from the afterlife alongside a group of ghosts who haunt her high school, having also died on its premises throughout the decades.  

The Cobra Kai actress and some of her ghostly co-stars, Sarah Yarkin (Rhonda), and Nick Pugliese (Charley) opened up to PopCulture.com ahead of School Spirits' premiere about life in the afterlife. "It's insane what a journey it is considering it's all in a high school, but she's stuck in this purgatory and she just has to witness everyone else moving on after she's died," List explained. "And she hasn't moved on. People are cruel and they don't care and she's just having to figure it out, and also watch people not care that she's gone and realize she didn't really make an impact."

As Maddie is trying to accept her place in the afterlife and discover the truth behind her death, she has a guide in Charley, who has been dead for almost 30 years. "It's interesting because we are on the other side of it, so we're less concerned about the who-done-it of it all," Pugliese said of his character's take on the newcomer to the afterlife. Yarkin agreed of her character, who's been dead for six decades, "I've been there so long. I don't actually care about figuring anything out. I am stuck, and I've just accepted that as my lot in the afterlife. ... I'm definitely not concerned with figuring out how this little one died. I'm like, 'Welcome to the club.'"

On the side of the living, Maddie has her grieving best friend Simon Elroy (Kristian Flores) looking for the truth. "He's very relentless," Flores told PopCulture. "To me, he's a symbol of intuition because he's very instinctive. ... I just love those kinds of people who follow their intuition because I think we all need those Simons. Otherwise, I believe society would crumble if everyone accepted all the information that was given to them. We have to refuse. We have to question things." School Spirits premieres its first three episodes on Thursday, March 9, on Paramount+.