‘Stan Against Evil’ Creator Dana Gould On That Shocking Finale Twist

With no official word yet on whether Stan Against Evil will get a fourth season, creator Dana Gould set out to radically change the game at the beginning of the show’s third season, and ended on either a shocking ending for the show, or the craziest cliffhanger yet.

Earlier this season, we spoke with creator and executive producer Dana Gould about the ending, what it means for the series’ future, and how it came to be.

“It can play either way, and even if I knew going in that I was going to have a fourth season, which rarely if ever do, I would have ended it this way because I felt like the whole thing with 172 demons felt like, ‘yep, we did it. It was a good trope, but let’s expand it and let’s do something different,’” Gould told ComicBook.com.

To that end, he had Stan (John C. McGinley) make a deal with a demon: he would become its host if it killed the ghost that has been cursing and haunting him and his town. The twist? In the end, Stan arranged to die, depriving the creature of any influence on Earth even after it had done what he asked.

“I had the idea of — I think the dialogue is still in there — ‘How do you beat Hitler? Well, you ally yourself with Stalin. Then what happens? Well, now you’re friends with Stalin,’” Gould said. “That was the whole point: Stan would burn down his house to get rid of termites. I felt like the time had come to knock that out, and to resolve it. The way I see it, if it was a book, we’re at the end of part one. I didn’t want to just be repeating ourselves — ‘oh, no, here comes Constable Eccles with another demon.’ Now we have this new demon, Horus, who’s really pissed off, and I just thought a lot of stuff is going to be smashed. The Secret Cemetery will be smashed and stuff in Willard’s Mill won’t be the same. From a writing perspective, I thought that was a really good idea because it will force me to keep the show fresh. One of the things I love about Doctor Who is they change the Doctor every few years, so it prevents you from getting stale. That’s not saying I’m replacing Stan, but I’m shaking up the board a little bit, and seeing what stands. I think that’s a good idea; it keeps things fresh and exciting, and if we do get the go-ahead, I know enough of how we’re going to get going, but I’m also excited, there’s a lot we can do.”

Among the things he might do? Well, in a recent interview, Gould said that he has considered a musical episode for the future.

Stan Against Evil is available to watch on Hulu, IFC‘s website and YouTube channel, and available for purchase on VOD services like Amazon.