The Netflix original series Julie And The Phantoms ended with a cliffhanger, leaving fans eager for a season 2 renewal that didn’t come. Based on the Brazilian series Julie e os Fantasmas, Julie And The Phantoms follows Julie, played by newcomer Madison Reyes, as she works through the grief surrounding her mother’s death and returns to making music. She’s helped by the ghosts of the band Sunset Curve. As Julie processes the death of her mother, the ghosts must accept their own untimely deaths and grieve the lives they left behind.
After learning that the ghosts are visible as long as they perform with Julie, they form the band “Julie And The Phantoms,” which allowed the members of Sunset Curve to fulfill the dreams they hadn’t in life and help Julie cope with her own fears and grief wrapped up in performing without her mom. Julie And The Phantoms might have been set in a supernatural world, but the show remained grounded by dealing with heavy themes such as grief as the characters processed deaths: both the ones they loved and their own.
Julie and the Phantoms season 1 ends with a major cliffhanger, despite the fact that Netflix didn’t have concrete plans to renew the show for season 2. The final episodes of the series see Alex, Luke, and Reggie accepting that they need to cross over to avoid the curse placed on them by Caleb Covington. Alongside Julie, they make plans to perform as Julie and the Phantoms at the Orpheum, believing that the performance they missed the night they died is their unfinished business. Unfortunately, the Orpheum doesn’t appear to be the unfinished business that left them lingering on Earth.
After the boys fail to complete their unfinished business, they’re ready to succumb to Caleb’s curse and vanish from existence — when suddenly, Julie reaches out to embrace them, and Luke, Reggie, and Alex become solid for the first time. Meanwhile, after the Phantoms foil his plan to steal their souls, Caleb Covington takes over Nick’s body and goes to see Julie. But what exactly does that ending mean for Julie And The Phantoms?
When the Phantoms have accepted that the curse will end their existence – ghostly or not – Julie is so overcome by emotion that she decides to hug Luke. To everyone’s surprise, she’s able to, and their embrace even makes him stronger, leading the entire band to share a hug, the boys becoming less ghostly and more solid as they do. As they begin glowing, the stamps dissolve and float away, symbolizing that Caleb’s curse has been broken.
Although the show ends on a cliffhanger, bringing the boys back to life — or at least giving them physical bodies — is a great resolution to their season 1 arcs: coming to terms with their deaths and new reality as a ghost. Each “Phantom” had to accept his fate individually, and they were only free when they could let go of their lives as living people and be saved by the power of love.
While the season 1 finale of the Netflix series is deliberately ambiguous about their fate, turning them back into living people would be a great setup for season 2. Even if the ghosts weren’t turned back into living people — what would Julie And The Phantoms be without the titular Phantoms — the fact that they are now would have been an exciting idea for season 2 and opened up more possibilities for them to interact with other characters.
One of the biggest reveals in the season 1 finale of Julie And The Phantoms is that Sunset Curve’s final performance at the Orpheum wasn’t their unfinished business. They try to hide that from Julie by teleporting back to the garage to wait for death, but she discovers them first. Since they weren’t able to cross over, it raises the question of what their unfinished business is. As Willie explains to the boys earlier in the show, their unfinished business must have to do with all three Phantoms since they died at the same time.
But they don’t know what it would be if not for the Orpheum.
The likeliest explanation is that the unfinished business has to do with the fourth, surviving member of Sunset Curve. Trevor Wilson, also known as Bobby, avoided death in the Netflix series by staying behind to flirt with the cute girl preparing to wait tables (revealed in supplemental materials to be Julie’s mother) instead of eating contaminated hot dogs. When his bandmates died, Trevor stole Luke’s songs and became a wildly famous musician without crediting them.
Although they tried, the Phantoms couldn’t confront Trevor when they were dead — and he didn’t know that they had returned as ghosts. In the season 1 finale of Julie And The Phantoms, Trevor sees their performance at the Orpheum and finally recognizes them. If the Phantoms are actually brought back to life — or at least if they have solid bodies — they can finally confront Trevor and complete their unfinished business.
Ghostly magician Caleb Covington spends Julie And The Phantoms trying to force the Phantoms to work for him in his nightclub. Caleb marks them with his stamp and owns their souls, forcing the Phantoms to choose between working for him or disappearing from existence. When they foil his plan in the season 1 finale, Caleb shows up at Julie’s house and finds Nick, the sweet high school boy with a crush on Julie. Caleb takes over Nick’s body, and season 1 ends with Caleb plotting revenge.
While it’s unclear if Nick is dead or able to fight back, for the first time in Julie And The Phantoms, Julie and Caleb Covington are finally face to face, and she has no idea. The twist raises questions about Caleb’s intentions and his plan for season 2.
Caleb is unambiguously evil, with his nightclub staffed with unwilling ghost servants who have sold him their souls, but he’s interested in the power that Phantoms have that allows them to be seen by living people. Caleb’s plan for revenge seemingly involves gaining Julie’s trust. Caleb is consumed with gaining power and increasing his influence, and his character is unable to accept that the Phantoms have broken his curse — making him even more resolved to force them into his service at the end of season 1.
Julie And The Phantoms might be a musical comedy, but it’s ultimately a show about grief and the power of love. Throughout season 1, Julie has to come to terms with her mother’s death and start making music again. The Phantoms have to come to terms with the fact that their lives were cut short, and 25 years have passed since they were last on Earth. Like Julie, they’ve lost their parents and are trying to navigate a world on their own.
By the end of Julie And The Phantoms, Julie has accepted her mother’s death and the Phantoms have accepted theirs when they choose to give up their existence for Julie — and that is what finally sets them free and breaks the curse. Although Luke, Reggie, and Alex are disappointed when they can’t cross over, giving them living bodies parallels the Phantoms’ arc to Julie’s as the four of them can finally move forward in their lives and afterlives.
Although Julie And The Phantoms was not renewed by Netflix for season 2, the season 1 finale sets up several new mysteries. With the possibility that Alex, Reggie, and Luke are now inhabiting human bodies, the show could have explored the boys returning to whatever remains of their old lives.
Most of Luke’s storyline has revolved around finding closure with his parents, and season 2 could have shown a reunion with his family. Now that Julie has accepted her mother’s death, she and her family can move forward. Alex would continue exploring his relationship with Willie, though that would have been complicated by Willie’s soul being owned by Caleb.
Season 1 of the Netflix original series Julie And The Phantoms sets up a supernatural world full of mysteries, and only begins starting to solve them. As the first high-profile project from Netflix’s deal with executive-producer Kenny Ortega, it was believed that the show would be renewed for season 2. Unfortunately, Netflix canceled the series nearly two years after it premiered on the streamer, citing the expense of the series as one of the primary reasons.
Though fans have been persistent in trying to get Netflix to offer closure in the form of a movie, another short season, or even selling Julie and the Phantoms to another streamer, they haven’t been successful in their very vocal social media campaigns. That doesn’t mean that the series couldn’t live on in another form if Netflix was interested in pursuing other avenues. The streamer did allow for three different Julie and the Phantoms books to be published during the run of the series.