Ghosts is going through some cast changes — and twists — but what does this mean for the future of the show?
Season 6, which premiered with a Halloween-themed episode on Thursday, October 29, soft launched Rose McIver‘s absence as Sam after the actress, 38, welcomed a child off screen. Ben Feldman, who was a recurring cast member in the past, is now more front and center while viewers awaited updates on whether Pete (Richie Moriarty) officially left the show.
Rebecca Wisocky weighed in on how Ghosts wrote around McIver being missing in the first half of the season, exclusively telling Us, “[Rose] is our fearless leader. I’ve said this many times over the last six years but she’s such a wonderful, kind leader. Obviously she is so talented as an actor but so much of that job — when you’re at the top of the call sheet — is about being a leader and being a uniter. She really functions that way very, very well.”
Wisocky, 54, recalled how “concerned” the rest of the cast was about the shakeup.
“That loss and not having her steady presence around. But the rest of us have really rallied in her absence. We are truly a tight knit group of friends at this point and so we’re anxiously awaiting her return,” she noted. “But in the meantime, this dynamic with Kyle and Jay is so fun. I can’t say it’s unexpected because it makes complete sense. But they have this kind of my two ghost dads kind of vibe.”
She continued: “So it’s really fun having just two dudes who are bumbling around trying to run this haunted house of lunatic muppet babies. It’s really fun. Ben is a very cool, fun guy. He’s been effortlessly folded into our family and so it’s been great. But we can’t wait to have Rose back too.”
Ghosts, which premiered in 2021, is based on the original British series of the same name. After a married couple moves from the city to their recently-inherited Woodstone Manor, Sam suffers an accident that allows her to see the ghosts of people from different eras of American history who died on the property and are now bound to the area.
The series has kept the same ghosts front and center on the show but a recent twist appeared to hint at Pete moving on. However, the season 6 premiere ended on a cliffhanger when Pete returned but didn’t remember anything from his time as a ghost.
“My first thought was how juicy and wonderful a gift to give to an actor like Richie who’s so wonderful is to just have the slate wiped clean. It’s interesting that the season starts in a post-Pete world,” Wisocky shared. “Not that the ghosts have moved on, obviously, but when Flower disappeared for an extended period of time, we didn’t know where she was, but we thought at the very least she may have been sucked off. She might have some sort of resolution.”
She continued: “Whereas with Pete disappearing, none of us know what that means. None of us know what that afterlife or purgatory or extended purgatory might mean. So I think there are a lot of questions to answer and hopefully you will see a lot of interesting and fun dynamics that emerge with Pete trying to remember who he is. The ghosts will obviously have some influence over that — over how accurately he does or does not remember his situation in the house.”
Despite the storytelling shifts, Wisocky isn’t worried about her character, Hetty, being written off, adding, “Well, I would hope that they would give me a little advance notice if that was true, or give any of us a little advance notice.”
Wisocky promised Hetty’s story would continue to be expanded in season 6.
“I want to learn more about the house. I feel like it’s lovely that they opened up this window into Hetty as a young woman. I’d love to hear more about her relationship with her mother,” she told Us. “There’s so many different avenues they can go down, especially with my character because she’s so tied to the Woodstone Mansion.”
The actress concluded: “There’s so many stories to relay about the period of time in which the house was being constructed. So many skeletons, literally and figuratively, buried in the walls of Woodstone Mansion.”
Ghosts is streaming on Paramount+.
