We’re all in this together!
That’s right, we'll be getting more of that spirit, as High School Musical: The Musical: The Series has been renewed for Season 4. With Season 3 featuring plenty of fun moments in its premiere and leading to big questions after the finale, there’s plenty to wonder about where this Disney+ original series is going to go now that it is entering its own senior year.
Who is going to be in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Season 4? What is the plot going to be about? What covers are we going to hear? To address some of your queries, here is what we know so far about the upcoming season.
What Is The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Release Date?
Get ready Wildcats, because High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is coming back for a fourth and final time on August 9th, 2023, as reported from an official press release from Disney+. The press release also confirmed that this would be the show’s last season.
It also confirmed that all eight episodes of the show's final season are going to come out that day as well. It’s going to be so sad saying goodbye to this generation of Wildcats, but hopefully, they’ll get the proper sendoff that they deserve.
Most Of The Main Cast Is Coming Back
If you were wondering if the cast was going to come back after their wild and eventful summer in Season 3, wonder no more, because it’s been confirmed that almost all of the cast is going to return to their roles on the comedy mockumentary series, according to the announcement of Season 4, as confirmed from the press release that was sent out in June 2023.
This includes Joshua Bassett as Ricky, Sofia Wylie as Gina, Dara Renee as Kourtney, Julia Lester as Ashlyn, Frankie Rodriguez as Carlos, Kate Reinders as Miss Jenn, and Liamani Segura as Emmy.
The cast has been plenty busy lately, with several of them appearing in other projects. Bassett has been working on his own music career, and Wylie is actually going to be starring in a new Netflix film, The School for Good and Evil, which released October 2022. But, it’s still exciting to see them come back to the roles that we all know them from for another season of fun.
Also confirmed for Season 4 of the show is that there are several new characters that have already been announced.
These include Kylie Cantrall, Matthew Sato, Caitlin Reilly, and Vasthy Mompoint, who will all have recurring guest roles in the upcoming fourth season, with appearances in shows like Grown-ish and the HBO Max original, Hacks, already under their belts.
Olivia Rodrigo Isn’t Confirmed To Return – But The Door Is Always Open
One of the standouts from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is Olivia Rodrigo. While she was on The Disney Channel prior to her role in the series, she became an even bigger star in 2021 with her budding musical career – making it much harder for her to be in the last season of the Disney+ show.
She was a recurring guest star for Season 3, and at the very end of the finale, it seemed like her character, Nini (as well as Rodrigo) were almost saying goodbye to East High for good in order for her to expand her career out on the West Coast. So, right now, it’s unclear if Olivia Rodrigo is going to return for the fourth season. From the press release, it also doesn’t bring her up as a guest star at all, so we’re not sure if she’s going to come back.
However, the showrunner, Tim Federle, spoke to Entertainment Weekly in September 2022 about her sweet exit in Season 3 and said that Rodrigo is always welcome to come back to the show if she wants to:
The door is always going to be open to Olivia Rodrigo, because she is a massive element to the success of the show and the success for me as a beginning TV writer when she was first cast. But, yeah, no formal discussions on that one right now. Olivia knows the door is always open.
To be honest, I wouldn’t blame Rodrigo in the slightest if she didn’t return, because she’s had such a flourishing career these last couple of years, including her own documentary on Disney+. I’ll be glad to support her in any way – and yes, that includes buying concert tickets.
Several Stars From The Original Series Will Arrive With The Fourth Season
While it is unfortunate news that Rodrigo might not be coming back, the press release revealed that several members of the original High School Musical movies are going to be returning for Season 4.
This includes Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Lucas Grabeel, Bart Johnson, Alyson Reed, and Kaycee Stroh. While they are also coming back as themselves in the show, they will be reprising their roles from the movies (Chad, Taylor, Ryan, Coach Bolton, Ms. Darbus, and Martha Cox) for the plot — which we’ll get into a little later.
There are still three members missing from the original line-up of High School Musical stars (Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale), but both Efron and Hudgens did post pictures outside of the actual East High in Salt Lake City in 2022.
Even so, in the interview above, Federle did say he wasn’t “that clever” to have them do those posts, but that he is trying hard to bring as many original cast members to the fourth season as possible.
Season 4 Will Be The Last, And Follow The Crew Performing A Production Of “High School Musical: Senior Year”
Remember when I alluded to the plot for Season 4 of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series? This is where we get into it – and boy is it going to be a wild season, according to the announcement for the upcoming episodes.
The first season featured a stage production of the first High School Musical. The second was all about Beauty and the Beast. The third took us to Frozen in the middle of summer camp. Now, we’re going back to our roots, as the kids look to put on a stage production of High School Musical: Senior Year for Season 4.
However, their lives are thrown upside down when a new movie in the High School Musical franchise is set to film at their school, called High School Musical 4: The Reunion, bringing back the original stars from the film to reprise their roles, with the Wildcats we now know as featured extras, throwing a wrench in their musical plans. Both Lucas Grabeel and Corbin Bleu have guest-starred on the show before, but now, they're back with other stars.
That’s right. This is about to be very meta.
The cast has already spoken about the craziness of Season 4 in an interview with E! News, where Joshua Bassett pointed out that the fourth season is going to be “three steps ahead” of all the other seasons. And honestly, I can believe that.
Filming Has Finished
The last thing we know about the fourth season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is that filming took place in 2022. In September 2022, the showrunner, Tim Federle, posted to his Instagram a picture of several cast members as well as the alumni from the HIgh School Musical franchise that were joining the show, saying that it was a good “first week” of shooting.
In December 2022, Federle took to Instagram again to celebrate the wrap of Season 4, saying that filming had officially come to a close.
With this in mind, that means that the premiere date is looming even closer as post-production continues.
Gosh, just writing this makes me want to listen to my HSM3 soundtrack over and over again. Can Season 4 come sooner?
