‘The Good Place’: Ted Danson Disclosed Season 1 Twist To John Krasinski

John Krasinski was one of the first few people to know the huge twist in the Season 1 finale of “The Good Place.”

During an Emmy For Your Consideration event held earlier this week on the set of the NBC comedy at Universal Studios, series star Ted Danson said that he intentionally revealed Season 1’s big secret to Krasinski ahead of time to prove how innovative and creative the TV project was.

“I was talking to John Krasinski, because he knows [series creator Mike Schur] well,” Danson said (via Entertainment Weekly) of Krasinski, who worked with Schur on “The Office.” “I went, ‘Yeah, I’m working with Mike Schur and Kristen Bell.’ When I said it takes place in the afterlife, I saw his eyes go, ‘Oh, it’s ‘The Office’ in Heaven.’ And that pissed me off. I’m like, ‘No! No! See, the trick is I’m actually a demon.’ And he was suitably impressed.”

Schur, who was also present at the event, chimed in and jokingly told Danson, “Unlike you, John is a professional, so he then didn’t tell anyone about it. He kept it quiet.”

When Schur revealed the twist to Danson for the first time, the actor said that he won’t tell anyone. But apparently, Danson didn’t manage to stand by his words. “Ted said, ‘Absolutely, of course, I completely understand, I won’t tell a soul,’” recalled Schur. “And he proceeded to tell literally every single person who asked him, random strangers at cocktail parties, anyone he ran into he’d spill the entire season. And I only found out about that after the finale had wrapped. He was like, ‘Okay, I’m glad it aired because I literally told everyone that happened.’”

Since Danson (Michael) and Bell (Eleanor) were the only cast members who knew about the twist from the get-go, William Jackson Harper (Chidi), D’Arcy Carden (Janet), Jameela Jamil (Tahani), Manny Jacinto (Jason) won’t forget the moment they finally learned the secret.

“We thought we were being fired. It was a little scary,” Carden said (via IndieWire). “Mike was like, ‘After lunch, we’re gonna meet all together.’ We were like, ‘Well, this is it, guys! It’s been a fun few months. Then Mike took us through and we were the exact same as [the audience]. We just had no idea. The only thing we knew was that a twist was coming and we still didn’t know.”

“I thought only I was being fired, and everyone else was there to support me,” Jamil added.

“I had a bunch of crazy theories,” Jacinto shared. “One was I thought it was going to be a handing of the torch, like Ted and Kristen were going to leave the show to us. I was going to dark places. So I was relieved when we finally found out.”

“The Good Place” Season 3 is expected to premiere this fall on NBC.