While Disney brought a string of announcements regarding High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Friday afternoon, there was on small tidbit buried that some fans may not be happy about.
In Disney’s official press release with all of the big news, it was revealed that season 1 and 2 star Olivia Rodrigo will only be appearing as a guest star in season 3. As will Larry Saperstein, who plays Big Red on the series.
This most likely means that both will have considerably less screen time and/or may only appear in a few episodes. The move isn’t surprising for Rodrigo, whose popularity and influence have grown tremendously since she broke the world with her hit single as a solo artist, “drivers license.”
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It’s unclear if this is a temporary transition, or if this means that her character, Nini, will be phased out from the show. When we last saw her, she and Ricky had ended things for good, and she was excited about becoming her own person (and artist) for once. Who knows what new developments the next season will bring though?
Set at Camp Shallow Lake, the next chapter of the High School Musical series will revolve around the Wildcats as they attempt to stage a production of Frozen. In addition to songs from the High School Musical franchise and Frozen, this season will also reportedly feature music from the Camp Rock movies too.
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The main cast will consist of Joshua Bassett (“Ricky”), Sofia Wylie (“Gina”), Matt Cornett (“E.J.”), Julia Lester (“Ashlyn”), Dara Reneé (“Kourtney”), Frankie Rodriguez (“Carlos”), Saylor Bell Curda (“Maddox”) and Adrian Lyles (“Jet”), with Aria Brooks (“Alex”), Liamani Segura (“Emmy”) and Ben Stillwell (“Channing”) appearing in recurring roles.
Besides Rodrigo and Saperstein, other guest stars will include Corbin Bleu (himself), Meg Donnelly (“Val”), Jason Earles (“Dewey Wood”), Kate Reinders (“Miss Jenn”), Olivia Rose Keegan (“Lily”), and Joe Serafini (“Seb”).