Paramount+’s hit supernatural drama School Spirits returns for its third season on January 28, plunging Maddie Nears and her friends deeper into a chilling mystery where the line between the living and the dead continues to blur. As past trauma resurfaces and buried truths threaten to explode, Season 3 raises the stakes with new characters, new dangers, and revelations that could change everything.

Entertainment Affair’s Raffael Alejandro spoke with Jennifer Tilly, who joins the series this season as the formidable Dr. Deborah Hunter-Price, and Josh Zuckerman, who returns as the ever-polarizing Mr. Martin, to discuss power, guilt, and the dangerous cost of control.

From the moment Mr. Martin appears on screen, viewers are left questioning his true intentions — a tension Zuckerman fully embraces. He describes the character as someone driven by shame and fear, masking his own guilt by attempting to control everyone around him. While Mr. Martin may believe he’s helping the spirits trapped at Split River High, Zuckerman notes that his motivations are deeply flawed, rooted in avoidance rather than accountability. By the time Season 3 begins, those buried secrets have only grown more consequential, pushing the character into an even more desperate and volatile place.

That moral ambiguity stands in stark contrast to Tilly’s Dr. Hunter-Price — a character who wastes no time making her presence felt. Tilly recalls being instantly drawn to the role, sensing something unsettling beneath the surface from her very first script. As the season unfolds, that suspicion proves well-founded. Dr. Hunter-Price isn’t just authoritative — she’s manipulative, greedy, and unapologetically self-serving. According to Tilly, the character thrives on disruption, stirring chaos wherever she goes and forcing uncomfortable truths into the open.

While the two actors didn’t share scenes together, their characters serve as parallel forces within the season — embodiments of control wielded in very different ways. Zuckerman’s Mr. Martin remains a tragic figure, clinging to order as a means of survival, while Tilly’s Dr. Hunter-Price revels in power, unconcerned with the damage she leaves behind. As Tilly joked, viewers may initially question Mr. Martin’s morality, but with her character, the verdict comes quickly — and decisively.

Season 3 of School Spirits premieres January 28, exclusively on Paramount+, launching with three episodes followed by weekly releases.