Spoilers ahead for the third season of School Spirits, read at your own risk.
If you look back at what is considered the golden-age of teen dramas (the 2000s), one thing is glaringly obvious and makes for an incredibly uncomfortable watch:the complete and utter lack of diversity of any kind. Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, The OC and so on. These TV shows, while entertaining, do not hold up in a variety of regards by 2026 standards.
Through the 2010s and early 2020s there have been attempts at righting the wrongs of decades past and trying to diversify teen television ensembles, to varying results – from the tokenistic and unwatchable Gossip Girl reboot, to the authentic and boundary-pushing Heartbreak High.
And now in 2026, School Spirits, a series that I first discovered through watching a TikTok edit to a Lizzy McAlpine song, has become a shining example of diverse storytelling in action. I mean, where else can you find a series that in the first three episodes alone depicts gender exploration, biphobia from a gay man, an ongoing storyline involving grooming, adoption, and more? Plus, if they deliver on a gay ghost and human relationship with Xavier and Kyle, I will genuinely start a parade.
I was lucky enough to have a chat with the cast of School Spirits to discuss this upcoming season, and here are some of their insights on the show’s major storylines, and how the series shines a light on diversity.
Charley & Yuri, and the ugly reality of biphobia within the queer community
It is no secret that biphobia is a very real and prevalent issue in the world, even within the queer community, and School Spirits captures this uncomfortable reality all too honestly with their storyline involving Charley and Yuri.
It is revealed to Charley that Yuri is not gay as he had assumed, but instead more fluid, having had a sexual relationship in high school which led to him conceiving a child shortly before his death. He suspects that his grandchild goes to the school that he haunts, and not being able to know his own family is impacting him emotionally.
Charley however was uncomfortable with the revelation of Yuri’s bisexuality, and treated him rather poorly.
Nick Puglise, who plays Charley on the show, tells Missing Perspectives that this plot line was important to explore on the show as biphobia “is a very active issue today within the queer community.
“I know a lot of people are very vocal about gay men erasing even queer women or trans men or women…So it is very prevalent,” he says.
When it came to Charley’s reaction to Yuri revealing that he was sexually fluid, Nick says “it was a little bit shocking” that he reacted so poorly but he“understood the reason” for it.
“To see Charley actually react in that way was sort of fascinating…The time he’s from, even though he is sort of this picture of queer acceptance or the idea of it, even he struggles with internalised homophobia or biphobia or erasure.”
@missingperspectives A very important conversation to be shown in media #schoolspirits @School Spirits #nickpugliese #mileselliot #biphobia #bisexual ♬ original sound – missingperspectives
For Miles Elliot, who plays Yuri, it was important to show Yuri’s queerness as fluid. He says he and the creators had discussed “that Yuri was just sort of queer and he never really flocked to a label from the get go”.
Miles is acutely aware of how different Yuri and Charley’s relationship to their sexualities are, saying “being gay to Charley, it means so much to him and it makes him feel safe. It makes him feel welcomed and he sort of finds that that’s not the case with Yuri. Yuri’s a bit more loose with everything and he didn’t know that he was bi. So it totally is a really relevant conversation.
“But I think the way it’s written…we have such great writers. They wrote it so beautifully and I think that Yuri and Charley are really able to navigate what it’s like for a gay person to be dating a bisexual person [and] what does queer relationships look like and sound like?”
Rhonda, and the plot that was left ambiguous
Rhonda’s storyline has always stood out to me because of the ambiguous nature of her relationship with her teacher and murderer, Mr Manfredo. But I have always been of the opinion that this storyline isn’t actually ambiguous, and that certain viewers will catch the subtext of the grooming that Rhonda likely endured.
Rhonda was murdered by her guidance counsellor, after the pair had gotten close and he helped her with her applications. When she revealed to him that she had been accepted into college, he snapped and ended her life.
In our chat, I ask Sarah Radin (Rhonda) about the show’s depiction of predatory relationships, especially contrasted against other teen shows that have had the tendency to romanticise teacher-student relationships.
“ I have read so many books about this fiction and nonfiction,” she says.“There was this book about becoming Lolita and she was being fetishised by her teacher. I find these stories upset me so much and I think I just can’t help but look because… it makes me so angry.”
When it came to reading Rhonda’s story, Sarah says “there weren’t that many details of her connection with Mr Manfredo and what exactly happened and kind of letting my imagination go wild and getting very protective of her.
“And feeling so much empathy for what happened to her at such a young age,” she added. “It’s sort of a dream as an actor and a really sad thing.”
Gender binary exploration with Quinn
Quinn, played by Ci Hang Ma, was introduced in the second season of the series as a new ghost who had passed away back in 2004 in a bush crash with other members of the marching band. Quinn was an immediate fan-favourite character, bringing a refreshing and infectiously kind energy to the show.
This season we see more of Quinn’s backstory, and how they never felt quite comfortable in their name, body, and identity before the crash. They changed their name in the afterlife to Quinn, and a seed was planted for Quinn to explore their gender identity further in season three.
@missingperspectives A very special storyline 🥹 #schoolspirits #cihangma #nonbinary #genderqueer #representationmatters ♬ original sound – missingperspectives
Ci Hang Ma tells Missing Perspectives that they’re “really happy” with the way Quinn’s character was written. The actor says that when the writing team “were searching for an actor to play this character, they wanted to cast authentically, so they auditioned gender queer actors”.
“In terms of playing the role, I think it’s very interesting because of the time jump because Quinn died in 2004, right? They were in high school in 2004 when diversity and gender and sexuality wasn’t talked about. It was super repressed.
“There was so much homophobia and transphobia then and I remember [that] from my own high school days,” they add. “Quinn has now woken up and in just Split River High 2023, but having only been awake for, you know, a week or two and hasn’t explored that. So I think [with] Quinn [and] what’s interesting about that scene is that they don’t even know what the words, let’s say, non-binary or gender queer even are, but they know what it feels like and they’re doing the best they can to describe to [it] this group. This is what I feel like, and this is why I (the character Quinn) changed my name, you know.”
Having spoken to the cast, one thing is clear. Viewers of School Spirits are in for a truly wild and spooky ride this season!
School Spirits is now airing its third season weekly on Paramount+.
Top photo – Pictured: School Spirits cast members, Source: Paramount+ (with additional design by Missing Perspectives)