If you’re still reeling over Coven Academy‘s finale, Devon Sawa and his daughter are right there with you.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Coven Academy, now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

After DECIDER asked the Final Destination star about the shocking reveal that arrives at the very end of the new supernatural series, Sawa agreed that “it’s a huge bombshell.”

“And you know how I know it works? Because my little girl, my 10-year-old, when she found it out, she was like,” Sawa recalled, as he began to gasp and shake in excitement. “And it was the sweetest little thing to watch.”

The bombshell in question is that Miss Graves (Tiffani Thiessen), the principal of Crescent Veil Academy and Mr. Cole’s (Sawa) brewing love interest, is actually Briar’s (Malina Pauli Weissman) mother.

“It’s like the biggest cliffhanger ever,” Sawa added.

Coven Academy sees Briar head to New Orleans from Brooklyn after the death of her mother Mary (Cecilia Deacon) to attend Crescent Veil, a school branded as being “for troubled girls,” but is actually for witches and warlocks in training. Throughout the series, Briar is hellbent on finding out what actually happened to her mother, and discovers that the magical institution has deep ties to Mary, who was also a witch. While there, Briar befriends fellow witches-in-training Sasha (Jordan Leftwich) and Tegan (Ora Duplass), who together, form a coven.

She also teams up with Jake (Malachi Barton), a warlock and seeming eventual love interest, who has fallen victim to the dark magic teachings of Mr. Cole. However, in yet another twist, viewers learn that Mr. Cole is not actually himself for a large chunk of the series; he is actually William Bixton shape-shifted into his body. Plus—in another family bombshell—William reveals himself to be Jake’s father.

“We didn’t know that going in,” Sawa explained. “We didn’t find that out until we were starting to shoot. And I think they told both me and Malachi separately and told us not to tell each other that we knew. So we were kinda going through this, like, ‘I know that I’m your father,’ and he knew that he was [my son]. And it was really interesting when we both kinda said, ‘Hey, I know something I gotta tell ya.’ And we both told each other, and he already knew and I already knew.”

Check out our full conversation with Sawa below, in which he makes his case for why Coven Academy “need[s] to get a Season 2, and 3, and 4…”

DECIDER: I’d love to jump right in, because this series is really quite twisty.

DEVON SAWA: It’s so much fun. It was so much fun shooting it. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Your character is introduced as Peter Cole, a warlock professor at Crescent Veil Academy… or so we think, because for the majority of the series, Mr. Cole is actually William Bixton, shape-shifted into Mr. Cole’s body.

You got it!

What was it like getting to sort of play two versions of the same character? Because one’s a little more sinister, obviously, than the other.

First of all, it’s incredibly flattering that the showrunner thought that I could handle this kind of role. It was a lot of fun. I mean, they’re both quite opposite. One’s definitely sinister. The other one’s kind of like the Robin Williams character in Good Will Hunting. He’s the lovable teacher that all the students love. I had a ball doing it. The contrast between the two characters was a lot of fun.

William, as Mr. Cole, is a strong proponent of dark magic and introduces it to Jake, who’s played by Malachi Barton. Why do you think it was Jake that he chose to corrupt in this way, and can you tell me more about working alongside Malachi? 

Well, first of all, Malachi is amazing. He is where he is for a reason. He’s very talented. He was able to come off these shows like Zombies and Camp Rock, where they’re larger than life and they’re big and they’re animated and great and they were a lot of fun. But then for this show, he’s very grounded and gritty. And I just enjoyed watching his process. He’s a good kid. I think Mr. Cole—or William—picked Jake because he was an easy target. He trusted Mr. Cole, and it was a way to get in really easily, you know? So it’s just an easy target.

William, once again as Mr. Cole, drops the bombshell on Jake that he is his father. And we also learn that Jake is the one to have summoned him.

We didn’t know that going in. We didn’t find that out until we were starting to shoot. And I think they told both me and Malachi separately and told us not to tell each other that we knew. So we were kinda going through this, like, “I know that I’m your father,” and he knew that he was [my son]. And it was really interesting when we both kinda said, “Hey, I know something I gotta tell ya.” And we both told each other, and he already knew and I already knew.

It’s giving the Friends scene of, “I know that you know we know…”

It’s exactly it! We’re both just kind of feeling each other out to see how much we knew, and apparently Tim [Federle] told us both. But we didn’t know that until we started shooting that block, those two episodes. It’s always fun. He’s a great kid and to play his father is so cool.

Though it seems like William has been defeated for the time being, do you think there could be more to come with this storyline?

I had just had a conversation with the writer about how I’m going to miss William. It’s always fun to play the bad guy. It’s always fun to get out, to stretch into that kind of sinister, evil fella. I hope he comes back. I hope I get to portray him if he does come back because the other actor—spoilers—the other actor [Tahmoh Penikett] that plays him as well is very good, too. But I hope we get to do more stuff like that where I can be different. Who knows? William could come back. We’ll see.

When you actually are playing Mr. Cole—who we find out is actually being kept in William’s basement, stripped of his powers—we see sparks fly between him and Miss Graves.

Right? That’s Season 2! If this is successful and we get a Season 2, I think we’re going to dive into that story a little bit more. We’re going to find out who Mr. Cole was, how he got there, his backstory, and hopefully get into some more sparks with Miss Graves.

Definitely. And tell me about working with Tiffani Thiessen.

Tiffani Thiessen surprised me in such an amazing way. She’s an icon, she’s been in so many gigantic shows. So when you get on set and you meet the person like that and they’re just so down to earth and grounded and sweet, it’s really nice. She was a lot of fun to be around and it made those 14, 15 hour-days in Canada easier. She is a good partner in crime, for sure.

You mentioned Canada. The series is set in New Orleans. Was anything actually shot in New Orleans? Or was it primarily shot in Canada?

It was shot all in Canada. The set designers and props [department] and everybody were really great at recreating New Orleans in Vancouver. We’d all been to New Orleans—all of us, the cast—at different times and we’ve spent a lot of time there. So we know the vibe of New Orleans. It would have been tough to shoot this in New Orleans, I think. But I think that the set designers and set decorators and the crew did a good job at recreating that New Orleans feel. And we all stuffed our face with a lot of New Orleans food.

This show definitely has some really cool special effects when it comes to the spells and all the magic involved. What is it like shooting those scenes? Because obviously you’re not seeing all of it play out. 
It’s nerve-wracking in a way because you don’t know— like when they say, “You’re going to see the bees or the birds,” or whatever it is that they’re saying, you just have to imagine. You don’t know what it’s actually going to look like on the day, and we weren’t the biggest budget. We were mid-range and so it could go either way. We could watch it and it could be bad, but it wasn’t. They did a tremendous job with it. I’m buying it. It’s Harry Potter-ish. They did an outstanding job. It’s magical.

Yes, completely. And another kind of family bombshell that’s dropped right at the end…

Yeah, we’re going all the spoilers, folks!

We’re going all in!

We’re going to go there!… It’s a huge bombshell. And you know how I know it works? Because my little girl, my 10-year-old, when she found it out, she was like, *gasps and shakes.* And it was the sweetest little thing to watch. The bombshell is we find out Miss Graves is Briar’s mom, and it’s like the biggest cliffhanger ever.

Exactly, and it seems like there’s some other things brewing, as well. There’s some other dark energy going on.

We left some doors open, didn’t we?

Yes!

So that’s why everybody’s got to watch. We need to get a Season 2 and 3 and 4, and get this thing going.

What do you see could potentially happen? What do you think this is teeing up for a second season?

I don’t know. I like to put all my trust in the writers and the showrunners. Tim is amazing. He had Todd [Slavkin] and Darren [Swimmer] on set. They were kind of leading the way up there in Vancouver. Every script came in and we’d get it and you’d read it, and we’d be the same way as when you watch it. Like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe this happened!” So who knows what happens on Season 2? If the show is popular, like I think it’s going to be, I think it’s gonna be a little bit bigger and we’ll get a lot more twists and turns and magic.

Outside of Coven Academy, your breakout role in Casper launched your career, and now you’re working on another exciting supernatural project alongside so many up-and-coming stars like Malachi, like Malina Weissman. Does it feel like you’re sort of passing the torch in this way to these stars?

You definitely are more aware of your behavior on set. You want to set a good example. You want be on time. You want your lines to be learned. Not that I don’t, but you’re a little bit more aware because you’re the old dog on set, I suppose. And so yeah, there’s a little bit of that going on where you just want to a set a good example. But they’re not as young as they appear. They’re early 20s, 18, 19. But it’s really a lot of fun to watch their process, because every actor has a different process. And Jordan—who’s brand new, who killed it on the series—is very serious. She reminds me a lot the way Jessica Alba was on Idle Hands. She’s very serious, very focused, wants to do this thing. And Malina’s been doing this for a billion years, and you can tell. It was just a lot of fun to to watch the whole process of these kids.

It’s also interesting because they’re navigating fame in an era of social media, as well…

In a way that I don’t know if I could. I would do Now and Then, for instance, and then I would go back home for a year and do school and whatnot. And there was no social media. Nobody could get ahold of me. My agents and managers at the time would send me only good reviews in, like, a FedEx box. I’d get a box of just good reviews. So everything I got was positive. But now, you see fans have such access to them. They can drop into their DMs, they can write comments under their posts. I don’t know how I’d do it. They’ve grown some thick skin, I’m sure.

Completely. I have to bring up another beloved project of yours, Little Giants, because Rick Moranis, your co-star, is set to return to the silver screen in a Spaceballs sequel. 

Good for him. I love that guy.

What was your reaction to hearing this news, and do you have any memories from the set that you can share?

Rick was dealing with some things at the time we were shooting Little Giants and so he stepped away a lot. But I remember him being the absolute most sweetest guy to us. Ed O’Neill was at the height of Al Bundy at the time, and he was like this big, fun, lovable uncle on set. I remember that. Little Giants was one of those movies where I wasn’t an artist yet. I was just on set with a bunch of kids and it was like summer camp, and we were playing pogs and goofing off. It was just like a big summer camp. And I remember those guys, the older actors, just being just a lot of fun to work with.

Coven Academy arrives kind of at the peak of spooky season.

Yes, my season!

How are you getting into the spirit of spooky season?

I stay in the spirit all year round. But listen, Halloween is my time of year. I love scary movies. So this is landing at the perfect time.

 Are there any horror movies or shows that you go back to every year?

No, I try to watch whatever’s new. I just saw Resident Evil, I love that movie. But this time of year I’ll be going to the theater more to see whatever’s out. I love this time of year, it’s great.

At DECIDER, we’re a website dedicated to all things streaming. So what shows or movies are you watching right now?

I watched Widow’s Bay, which I loved. That’s about it right now. I do a lot of movies. So yeah, I’m not streaming too much. I’m kind of boring. I watch a lot a baseball, as boring as that is. And I watch my son play baseball.