Everything we know about High School Musical: The Musical: The Series

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30th Aug 2019

It’s 2019, and we are officially in reboot heaven. With a new revival being announced every other day, we are officially neck deep in nostalgia with no urgency to dig ourselves out.

And over the last few days, we’ve sunk ever so slightly deeper into revival territory with the release of the first trailer for the much-hyped High School Musical (HSM) reboot. Due to stream on Disney +—the same service which will play host to the equally-as-anticipated Lizzie McGuire reboot—High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (yes, that is its official title) will be set within the walls of East High School, the same fictitious school that Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), and Gabriella Sanchez (Vanessa Hudgens) attended all those years ago.

In an extremely meta portrayal of the HSM story, the series’ plot surrounds the East High drama club’s journey in executing their school’s first production of High School Musical: The Musical, inspired by the exact same film—which too exists in this rebooted universe—this new series has adapted. Confused yet?

In terms of style, you’re unlikely to experience the high-octane cheese-fest that came with the film trilogy. Instead, you can expect a splice of styles which are reminiscent of both Glee’s a capella-meets-comedy-meets-teen drama with the show’s raw and shaky multi-focal shots, mixed in with a healthy dose of Mean Girls’s humourous piece-to-camera narration, all executed in a mockumentary-style narrative.

Are you now as excited to watch this HSM reboot as we are? Scroll on to read everything we know so far about High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

As we touched on earlier, the series follows a group of East High students and their production of High School Musical: The Musical. In a world where the trilogy of original films exist, which the entire student body (and some staff) have watched in full several times—one in particular who claims to have seen “the original movie 37 times, and the first 15 minutes of both sequels”—each member of the East High drama club fights for the starring roles that also appeared in the original films, including Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay and Ryan Evans.

Of course, in addition to the musical production plot, a sub-plot which includes teen love triangles, drama club politics and a whole lot of millennial-skewed scripting plays out concurrently.

And, the role parallels and musical plot aren’t the only elements this reboot is reviving from the original film trilogy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, each episode will feature a rendition of a song that appeared on one of the three original HSM movie soundtracks, including Stick To The Status Quo—which can be heard in the trailer—as well as many original numbers.

While the revived High School Musical offering isn’t set to have any of the original film trilogy’s cast members return, it is set to welcome a whole new cast full of newcomers. Starring in the Gabriella-equivalent role of Nini is Olivia Rodrigo, who has already starred in small Disney productions, and could not be more thrilled to be part of a narrative that was so embedded in her upbringing.

“High School Musical is such a big part of our generation’s upbringing so it’s really great to be a part of a project that pays homage to that,” Rodrigo told Entertainment Weekly (EW). “It’s really exciting to be a part of that franchise.”

Playing Nini’s Troy—or in the series’ case, Ricky—is Joshua Bassett. A relative newcomer to the industry, the 18-year-old has already scored small roles in Grey’s Anatomy and Dirty John.

When it came to casting each part, executive producer and show runner of the series, Tim Federle, had a very specific look and feel in mind for the fresh cast. “What I wanted to do was capture the real spirit of theatre kids,” he also told EW. “So what if we cast real teenagers with acne? They’re not going to lip-sync, they’re going to sing live. It’s the real deal. The entire series is all about finding your tribe. A new generation deserves new characters.”

Other primary characters in the reboot cast include, Miss Jenn—2019’s answer to Ms Darbus—played by Kate Reinders, EJ, Nini’s sometimes love interest, played by Matt Cornett, as well as Gina (Sofia Wylie), Kourtney (Dara Renee), Ashlyn (Julia Lester), Carlos (Frankie A. Rodriguez) and Big Red (Larry Saperstein).

The High School Musical reboot series is set to be available for streaming from November 12, 2019.

Rejoice! High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is set to run for 10 episodes.

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