You could say the boys (and girls) are back: “High School Musical” originals Corbin Bleu (“Chad”), Monique Coleman (“Taylor”), Lucas Grabeel (“Ryan”), Bart Johnson (“Coach Bolton”), Alyson Reed (“Ms. Darbus”) and Kaycee Stroh (“Martha”) have joined the cast of Disney+’s spinoff show “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” Season 4.
The actors will play themselves as they reprise their own “High School Musical” roles after Disney announces it will make the long-awaited “High School Musical 4: The Reunion” movie at East High.
Season 4 will also see recurring guest stars Kylie Cantrall (“Gabby Duran & The Unsittables”), Matthew Sato (“Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.”), Caitlin Reilly (“Hacks”) and Vasthy Mompoint (“The Prom”).
Cantrall will play social media star Dani; Sato will star as sitcom actor Mack; Reilly is indie film director Quinn; and Mompoint will portray choreographer Krystal.
As previously reported, the show — starring Joshua Bassett as Ricky, Sofia Wylie as Gina, Dara Reneé as Kourtney, Julia Lester as Ashlyn, Frankie Rodriguez as Carlos, Kate Reinders as Miss Jenn and Liamani Segura as Emmy — will continue on its meta journey as it takes its students to the halls of East High, where it all began, in Season 4.
The logline for the senior installment is as follows: “After an epic summer at Camp Shallow Lake, the Wildcats return to East High where they prepare a stage production of ‘High School Musical 3: Senior Year.’ But plans are disrupted when Principal Gutierrez announces that Disney has decided to make the long-awaited ‘High School Musical 4: The Reunion’ movie on location at their beloved high school.”
The current East High Wildcat students will play extras in the film. Season 4 of the GLAAD Media Award-winning series, created and executive produced by Tim Federle, will feature songs from the “High School Musical” franchise as well as original music.
Earlier this month, Bassett said the new season is going to be great.
“It will blow people away. All of the cast was freaking out when we got the new scripts and everything, so it’s very exciting. ‘High School Musical’ is what made us … so to come back to [the third film] is really special,” he said. “I personally think people are going to enjoy it, and I’m excited to see what we do with it.”
This, of course, isn’t the first time that original cast members have made appearances in the series. Grabeel made a cameo in Season 1, and Bleu returned for Season 3 as a heightened version of his real self. Bleu — who had been involved with the series in earlier seasons off-screen — previously told TheWrap that Federle was instrumental in getting his head back in the game.
“He really made me so comfortable and a part of the process to be able to feel comfortable coming back to the franchise,” Bleu said. “I’d always say, if I was ever to come back it’d have to be under the right circumstances and he created that perfectly.”
