The ‘Ghosts’ Universe May Be About to Get Much Bigger [Exclusive]

This fall, Ghosts is rolling out the (blood) red carpet to welcome a spooky new sister series to the Thursday night lineup on CBS. Last week, at San Diego Comic-Con, the lucky attendees in Ballroom 20 were the first to see the pilot episode of Eternally Yours, a new series from Ghosts showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman. The preview episode was followed by an exciting panel introducing the wickedly talented cast, moderated by Collider’s Perri Nemiroff​​​. Naturally, when Nemiroff caught up with the cast at Collider’s SDCC interview studio, she had to ask what a potential crossover between the shows helmed by Port and Wiseman might look like, and the Eternally Yours cast came prepared.

When asked which character from Ghosts they’d like to see their characters share a scene with, Ed Weeks, who plays vampire patriarch Charles, instantly imagined his character “having a quarrel with Isaac about who is the de facto leader of the group. […] An arrogance-off.” Jaren Lewinson — who plays Max, the human boyfriend of Charles and Liz’s (Allegra Edwards) vampire daughter, Emma (Helen J. Shen) — said he would be happy to “maybe just watch some sports with Jay.” Lewinson continued: “I think we would have a really nice time. I think it’d be like a nice, really lovely, normal interaction for the both of us,” he laughed. “He doesn’t get to have that, and I don’t think I do very much either. There’s a lot of supernatural stuff going on,” explained Lewinson, to which Weeks joked, “And he’d be able to see you, which is so lovely. That’s one of my favorite qualities about you — how visible you are.”

Edwards, who Ghosts fans will recognize from her guest role on the series as Pete’s (Richie Moriarty) island girlfriend, Donna, naturally took the opportunity to reference her time on the show. “I would have a little sit-down with Pete and freak him out because of how much I resemble a certain ex-girlfriend of his. […] I don’t even have to do anything. It would just be Richie [Moriarty] going, ‘Do I know you?’” Meanwhile, Shen couldn’t resist poking fun at a certain pants-less ghost, saying, “I feel like a pants-less conversation would be like, ‘I’m not not thinking about the fact that you’re not wearing pants.’ […] With Trevor. He’s so funny. There’s a dryness to his legs, his ashen, Asher [Grodman] legs.”

What Do You Need to Know About ‘Eternally Yours’ Before It Premieres This Fall

While their backstories are subject to change as writing moves forward on the new series, the cast of Eternally Yours revealed some juicy details about their character choices as they film the rest of Season 1 alongside Ghosts in Montreal, Canada. When asked about backstory details they’ll use to inform their performances, Weeks once again had a perfectly succinct answer. He told Nemiroff: “For me, I think because in the cold open, so 500 years ago when we’re first getting together, and we both speak with English accents, I love the idea that I have kept mine, just stubbornly, whereas Liz has, has assimilated into American culture, and I refuse to. No, thank you. So, to me, that was kind of a statement in my kind of stick-in-the-mud conservatism.”

For Shen, she’s ready to dive into Emma’s dating history to further explore why she’s so drawn to Max now. “To be in the body that she’s in eternally, she’s probably gotten many degrees, done many skills, experienced, honestly, everything under the sun, and to decide, ‘I’m going to try the thing that I’ve never tried before,’ — normal — is quite an interesting kind of outside-in experience to me,” explained Shen. “I’m excited to see how that deepens our relationship. Then, when, potentially, if things get rocky, how there’s maybe some apprehension about it or, like, ‘This is the whole reason why I didn’t do normal before!’ Things like that. To have 200 years of backstory is, I think, daunting at times, but also, it’s an exercise in my imagination and our imagination, and talking about it. I just am excited about getting around a campfire and talking our histories together.”

Comparatively, as the show’s main human character, Lewinson’s Max has significantly less backstory than the others, having only been alive for “20-something years.” However, that gave Lewinson plenty of inspiration for how to play Max, explaining, “I think that also brings a freshness and a newness, and sort of, I don’t know if it’s a little puppy energy in the grand scheme of how long everyone else has been alive, but I think that Max probably is really excited because this is only the first time that he’s really lived this life, versus maybe they have had several, like Helen was saying. So, I think hopefully, as Max interacts more with this family and this coven, he brings in some freshness and some excitedness, which hopefully will inspire others to rekindle things or take on new adventures, or whatever.”

Edwards had an equally thoughtful answer, revealing that she actually worked with some of the show’s “amazing wardrobe designers” to create a beautiful bit of backstory built right into her costume. “We’ve got some amazing wardrobe designers on our show, and they have such a task in front of them with the flashbacks, which is going to be fun, but also a lot of work,” said Edwards, making sure to give the below-the-line team their well-deserved flowers. She went on to reveal a subtle costume detail that Liz wears that reveals a deep love for history. She told Nemiroff:

“One of the things that they gifted me with for the pilot was this really cool ring. It’s a wedding ring, and it’s a replica of something that would have been around in the 1500s that is two separate rings. So, it’s like a gemstone on the bottom, and then you slide on another gemstone, and they interlock once they’re together, but the man would have worn the top one, and then once they get married, I would wear both of them together. So, I’m always wearing something from the 1500s. Or there’s a blazer that I wear that has the initial B for Blythe, and I like the idea that maybe it’s 300 years old and not just something…

The way that I’m thinking about her is this sort of collected house that she lives in, that maybe the pieces of art are really from her family, 400 years ago. The things that she wears reflect a version of herself from another century, and their not being able to help holding onto the heritage, or being attracted to the things from the eras that we’ve lived through and that we’re not in anymore, while also trying to be modern at the same time.”

While Young’s character detail can also be spotted in his wardrobe, his article of choice is significantly less subtle than Edwards’ wedding ring. “One little thing that I fought for in the pilot was, Jesse was described as being a personal trainer, so as you would expect, my wardrobe was that of a personal trainer. It was Lululemon, and it just felt like it was missing an opportunity to showcase someone who has lived for a couple of centuries,” said Young before revealing he had strong feelings about including a bit of anachronism in the way Jesse dresses.

“I was stuck on this idea of, he lived in the 1800s. He was a farmhand, and he was a cowboy. […] So, I fought to wear cowboy boots. I wanted to have something reminiscent of that time, even if the rest of my wardrobe was indicative of a personal trainer. And it was so funny, the costume designer, who’s incredibly talented, describes seeing me for the first time in my workout pants with cowboy boots as nails on a chalkboard for her. She’s like, “I could not accept this, but then seeing it now, it makes sense.” Weeks joked that they’re “just justifying the fact that he has cowboy boots and I have a British accent. Everyone else has thought about this…”

Why ‘Eternally Yours’ Is the Perfect New Series to Make the Wait for ‘Ghosts’ Season 6 Feel Shorter

During a separate interview, Ghosts star Utkarsh Ambudkar hyped up the new series that will be premiering in their usual time slot this fall. “You get a great sort of cousin to Ghosts in Eternally Yours, which is premiering, and they will slide into that Thursday spot that folks are really used to seeing. Eternally Yours is replacing us, but I think it’s a great show.” He explained, “We watched the pilot today. It’s really funny, really smart, and hopefully will give them a boost because we want them to stay on and be part of the CBS family, especially because they’re children of the Joes, as well. And if they do well, then we get that crossover, which would be great.” Asher Grodman then joked, “And they have to stay in Montreal with us because we’re really lonely.”

When asked which Eternally Yours character they would like to see their Ghosts characters interacting with, Grodman revealed more delightful behind-the-scenes overlap, explaining, “Oh, I mean, I went to grad school with Allegra [Edwards], so we spent many, many an hour working together, so that would be a no-brainer. And Trevor would love that character. So yeah, that would be a nightmare and so exciting.” Román Zaragoza, who was pulling double duty at SDCC for Ghosts and Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, missed the pilot screening, but said he would happily share the screen with Shen after seeing her performance in Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway. “It brought me to tears. I took my mom, and it was such an amazing Broadway performance. If anyone has not seen Maybe Happy Ending, check it out. […] She’s incredible. Tony-nominated. So, selfishly, I would love to work with her. It could be really fun.” Meanwhile, Ambudkar would love to have a The Mindy Project reunion with Weeks: “It’s been many, many years, so it’d be nice to see him in a work environment.”

Eternally Yours premieres on October 8, and Ghosts will air a 1-hour Halloween special on October 29 on CBS. Stay tuned at Collider for more.

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Showrunner

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Joe Port, Joe Wiseman

Directors

Trent O’Donnell

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