The fourth and final season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is nearly here in the 2023 TV premiere schedule, and the Disney+ show is delivering some serious nostalgia in the final batch of episodes. It was announced nearly a year ago that Season 4 would bring in former High School Musical stars Corbin Bleu (Chad), Monique Coleman (Taylor), Lucas Grabeel (Ryan), Bart Johnson (Coach Bolton), Alyson Reed (Ms. Darbus) and Kaycee Stroh (Martha) for a final bow, and a new sneak peek dropped a reveal that has been nearly twenty years coming: Grabeel's character is gay. And the internet is all in on the official news!
Speculation about Ryan Evans' sexuality has been happening going all the way back to 2006, with the first TV movie when there was no way of guessing that there would one day be a show like High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. The speculation ramped up with High School Musical 2 in 2007 (particularly after the "I Don't Dance" number with Chad that left many theorizing that Ryan had a crush on Chad) and continued with HSM 3 despite that movie attempting to set up a romance between Ryan and Kelsi.
Lucas Grabeel will play a fictionalized version of himself, so HSM:TM:TS isn't technically making Ryan Evans canonically gay just yet in promotional materials, but the sneak peek has fans excited for good reason. Take a look:
It’s time for the high school reunion we’ve all been waiting for… 😉Here’s a sneak peek of the first episode of #HSMTMTS, streaming August 9 on #DisneyPlus! pic.twitter.com/wal7NFTP4HJuly 25, 2023
Lucas Grabeel's love interest will evidently be played by Scott Hoying in the final season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and the couple is already adorable after just a few moments of a sneak peek together! As somebody who watched the films back in the day and probably still knows most of those soundtracks by heart, I couldn't be happier to see Ryan get the kind of relationship that HSM director Kenny Ortega didn't think could be done on Disney when the franchise was just beginning.
So, even though Disney Channel viewers didn't get to see Ryan confirmed as gay in the three movies, Disney+ subscribers will get to see it in a different form via HSM:TM:TS! Twitter was full of fans celebrating the reveal, even if the consensus wasn't exactly that anybody was surprised. Take a look at one reaction with an A+ gif choice:
Ryan Evans from High School Musical is finally confirmed to be gay…ITS BEEN 84 YEARS BUT IT IS NOW CANON FINALLY FUCK 😭 pic.twitter.com/P4abDDJplbJuly 26, 2023
That reads like the tweet of somebody who watched the High School Musical movies back in the day and has been waiting almost two decades to see confirmation that Lucas Grabeel's character is gay. It's possible that any fans of the films just caught up more recently via Disney+, though! Two movies of the jazz square-loving Ryan without a love interest then being written into a romance with Kelsi in the third certainly gave the impression that confirmation would never come. Take a look at another reaction:
just found out ryan from high school musical is confirmed gay in hsmtmts pic.twitter.com/uWXs43pi0oJuly 25, 2023
Though this development will happen in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, the reveal is even a hit among those who watched the original movies but haven't been tuning in to the Disney+ TV show. A HSM movie fan tweeted:
I don’t watch that damn high school musical series but like I’ll gladly take Ryan CANONICALLY being gay 💪🏻July 26, 2023
It remains to be seen if HSM:TM:TS does officially establish that Ryan Evans the character was gay, since Lucas Grabeel is playing a fictionalized version of himself who is playing Ryan in Season 4. However it's handled, @CharCubed on Twitter raised a very good point about why this is such a big deal, even if the widespread belief already was that Ryan was gay:
everyone saying 'we already knew' should realize back in the day it wasn’t allowed to be made explicit & Disney even went as far to try to imply he & Kelsi were together in the third movie to tamp down talk about Ryan being gay... this IS a big deal & is worth celebrating
For fans of both the HSM movies and the TV show, there is indeed a lot to celebrate! The fourth and final season should deliver plenty of nostagia with the cast members from the original three installments, and the sneak peek may have dropped a clue that Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale could make cameos before the end. I can't be the only one who wants to see Sharpay and Ryan sharing the screen again in some form or other after this sneak peek, right?
The fourth and final season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series will premiere on Wednesday, August 9 on Disney+. You can find the three HSM movies on the Disney streamer as well.
