Asher Grodman Teases ‘Unfinished Business’ After that Ghosts Season 5 Finale

Warning: This interview contains spoilers for the Ghosts Season 5 finale.

Ghosts loves its cliffhangers. However, Season 5 featured a particularly brutal one as we watched sweet Pete Moriarty vanish as he raced back to Woodstone.

Asher Grodman, who plays pantless poltergeist Trevor on the show, attempted to ease our pain with a joke when I spoke with him about the season finale: “Richie Moriarty is kind of a nightmare to work with, so it was a relief for most of us.”

“No, no, Richie is such a treasure. I love him so much, and he does such a great job in this episode,” he continued. “There was a shockwave of fear that went through all of us. Richie is just amazing, and that character is amazing.”

Saying goodbye to a fellow ghost-mate, even temporarily, is never easy.

“We’re all like so deeply in love with each other,” Grodman lamented. “I’ve already spoken to four ghosts today, so we’re all very intertwined. I can’t imagine my life without them. They’ve become my family, and there is no job as an actor where you are with a group of people for this long and go on this kind of journey. I love these people. I never want to stop working with them.”

Pete’s “death” dredges up questions of mortality for the characters and for a show that is geriatric by today’s streaming standards. Grodman assures that despite the aging premise, Ghosts has a lot of life left to live.

“The concept of the show is so rich, and there’s so much to still do. We’re going into Season 6, and it feels like we almost haven’t done anything yet,” he admitted. “Trevor, for example — he’s got his parents out there, he’s got his brother, he’s got his daughter, he’s got this ability to get another job. He’s got the dating apps, and then there’s Jordan Belfort’s bachelor party that he was at. There’s the twenty-year period after he died before Sam showed up.”

“With every new thing we create, five new options emerge. It does feel like there’s still this unfinished business, forgive the pun.”

“I think all of us are still reaching for something that’s special, new, and thrilling. The fact that we’re on a show that has that much real estate is remarkable.”

That desire to push further even led Trevor to become a brief antagonist in Jay’s fight to save the restaurant this season.

“What’s unique about Trevor is that, on some level, you kind of feel like he’d be the most callous of the crew. But he is the only ghost who has spent more time alive than he has dead, so he’s constantly trying to feel like he’s alive again. He’s kind of fighting for his life, and fighting for that impact he could have on the world that could outlast all of us,” Grodman said.

“Now, he doesn’t know that Hooters is basically dead and that industry has shriveled up, but I understood the logic of that.”

“Trevor was at this real crossroads. He loves the party, but what he loves about the party is that everyone he loves is together. He wants that companionship, that found family, and at the same time, he wants to have this legacy. So, these two very intrinsic things in him were at odds with each other.”

Mid-Season Move

Ghosts is facing its first scheduling change since premiering, with a move to the mid-season slot. So naturally, Grodman was asked to put our worries at ease.

“As far as our production goes, I don’t think anything is really changing,” he confirmed. “We’re going back at the same time that we normally would, and shooting on vaguely the same schedule that we’ve been shooting on in the past.”

The actor also touched on the announcement that Ghosts will air one-hour episodes in the fall for the Halloween and Christmas specials: “There’s a thousand years of history on this plot of land. So, when we get to do the hour-long episodes, it does feel like the show gets to spread its wings. I think the idea of giving that depth to Halloween does feel like it could be a very exciting opportunity.”

“Then you know we’re really lucky to have these amazing fans who are always saying, ‘The episodes go by too fast.’ So now you get the same amount of Ghosts, but you also get to have longer ghostly experiences.”

Trevor the Director

This Ghosts’ family plays hard and works even harder, with several cast members stepping behind the camera in recent seasons to direct episodes. It’s an opportunity Grodman would “love” to explore.

“We have had discussions for a few years now, and I’ve directed a lot outside of the show. I’ve been lucky enough to make a film each of the last three years, and I really love that process. To be able to take that kind of 360-degree, very collaborative process and bring that to our cast and crew — who I know so well — it would just be such a thrill.”

“It’s kind of like knowing what all your friends like for lunch, and then you just want to be able to cook for them one time,” he added.

“We’ve spent more time with each other than anyone else has spent with us, so there is this deeply intuitive sense that we have about each other. I do find that when Rose [McIver] and Utkarsh [Ambudkar] directed theirs, there was an ease and sense of play that comes in. It’s like working on a Sunday, and it feels like play because you’re just doing it with your friends.”

The Art of H-Money

Despite Hetty and Trevor’s whirlwind relationship taking a backseat this season, H-Money is still very much at the forefront of fans’ intrigue and for good reason.

“Something that Joe Wiseman told me way back when we did the Trevor catfishing episode was that the goal of our show is to do stories that only our show could do. I look at the Trevor and Hetty relationship in that context, where those two characters are so specific that there are things that they can do that no other character on the property could do,” he explained.

“It is deeply combustible, competitive, and sexy. Yet there is a friendship there. It comes more from them being so alike in some ways, and then polar opposites in other ways. So I always love — and Rebecca [Wisocky] loves — when we get to fill these moments with tension and secrecy, and that chemistry that they have.”

It’s a chemistry Grodman believes will always tether these two star-crossed spirits to each other, for better or worse.

“My sense is that whatever happens with these two, whether they’re battling or having this passionate love affair, they’re going to heaven or hell together.”

The actor acknowledged that Hetty and Trevor are both just “dummies” trying to navigate complicated feelings. “The fact that Trevor is the emotionally mature one of the two tells you it all.”

“They’re going to be stuck with each other for eternity, and that could be a good thing or a bad thing. But it’s so fun to play, and it’s something that we’ve always lobbied for. That push and pull, that combustibility is such a joy.”

“What to me is so palpable about that relationship is these little looks and glances that do so much because there is such a history there.”

When asked about a “look” shared between the two during a discussion about Trevor’s fondness for aquarium walls, Grodman grinned: “Where she looks at me and I kind of smirk at her? I saw that make the rounds on Twitter. This is the stuff that Rebecca and I are trying to find moments for. Then Devan [Chandler Long] will yell at us: ‘Oh, they’re cooking! They’re doing something!'”

“We love our little Easter eggs, and it’s just so fun. So, when the writing then hands us the ball to run with it, it feels like magic.”

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Ghosts is streaming now on Paramount+. The series will return this fall for two specials before Season 6 premieres in early 2027.

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