In the world of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, High School Musical 4: The Reunion is very much a reality but sadly for the rest of us mere mortals, it’s not happening just yet.
The rumors about a continuation to the massively popular franchise that aired on Disney Channel between 2006 and 2008 have been plentiful over the years, but it’s the Disney Plus show that serves as a sort of sequel to the films that has given us all the closest thing to a fourth HSM yet in its latest season (even producing a whole new original song).
In season 4 of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, the cast of High School Musical returns to film a fourth movie using the familiar East High as the backdrop. Among the stars returning were Monique Coleman, Bart Johnson, Alyson Reed, KayCee Stroh, and Lucas Grabeel, but sadly a handful of main players couldn’t make it this time.
Both Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens sent fans into a frenzy last year by posting photos to their social media — one month apart — of them hanging out at the famous set for the film (where the television show also takes place).
However, it all seems to have been purely coincidental, with HSMTMTS creator, Tim Federle, making note of the two stars’ absence from the fictional fourth movie he concocted within the series. “I got the feeling with Zac and Vanessa, who I don’t know personally but I’m a fan, reading the tea leaves, that by the time you get into negotiating what this would take, we’re gonna wrap and the show will be over,” Federle told Trib Total Media while speaking about the final season of his show. As for Ashley Tislade — who played the pink queen Sharpay Evans — the timing just wasn’t right.
“Ashley called me personally and was so lovely. She’s very busy launching brands and it just wasn’t the right timing.”
In the movie-within-the-show version of HSM 4 — whose filming is depicted in HSMTMTS — Troy and Gabriella are in couples’ therapy, Ryan comes out as gay and is happily coupled up with a boyfriend played by Pentatonix’s Scott Hoying, and Taylor is now the school principal (and still going strong with Chad).
While this all sounds like a really great extension of the characters we grew up with, an actual fourth HSM film is not currently in the works. Still, in the age of remakes and reboots – who knows what might happen?
