Mathew Baynton is haunting Ghosts.
The British actor, who co-created and starred in the original U.K. version of the sitcom which started in 2019, will be making a surprise cameo in the second season of the American CBS iteration. Baynton will be taking on the role of Actor Pete, an English method actor hired by the fake television show Dumb Deaths to recreate the day Pete Martino (Richie Moriarty) died. Actor Pete then becomes obsessed with "getting to the truth" of real-life Pete's death, as the troop leader was shot in the neck with an arrow by a fellow scout.
"When I was invited to play a guest role in the CBS version of Ghosts, I was a little concerned that the two universes colliding would tear a hole in the fabric of time and space," Baynton told Entertainment Weekly in an article published Sept. 29. "Thankfully, that didn't happen, and instead I had a lot of fun playing with a bunch of very lovely funny people."
On the U.K. version, Baynton plays someone completely different (and completely dead). Since season one, he's starred as the ghost of Thomas Thorne, a dramatic poet who ultimately falls in love with married (and alive) Button House owner Alison (Charlotte Ritchie). Hey—at least in the American version, Baynton could have a corporeal romance.
And for showrunners and executive producers Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, his cameo was anything but frightening.
"We'd been looking for a chance to have one of the U.K. ghosts on, so we were thrilled when Mat said yes, and not surprised at all when he knocked the role out of the park," they said. "Our main goal when we set out to adapt Ghosts was honestly to make something that the British creators liked, so to have this stamp of approval from someone we admire so much, was a huge validation for our whole team."
Check out Baynton's new role when Ghosts premieres Sept. 29 at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS.