Photo:Lucas Dawson/Getty
Lucas Dawson/Getty
Warning: This post contains spoilers from the final season ofHigh School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Seriesreunited severalOG Wildcatsfor itsfourth and final season— though a few faces were noticeably missing on screen.
Season 4 followed thefictional filming ofHigh School Musical 4: The Reunion, withCorbin Bleu(Chad),Monique Coleman(Taylor),Lucas Grabeel(Ryan) andKaycee Stroh(Martha) reprising their characters from the original movies as they attended their high school reunion.
Federle previously told PEOPLE in 2022 thatan invitation had been extended to all of the originalHSMstarsto appear in season 4, but he noted at the time, “It’s a matter of juggling and holding my breath and praying and lighting candles and seeing who wants to come play with us."
Ultimately,Zac Efron(Troy),Vanessa Hudgens(Gabriella) andAshley Tisdale(Sharpay) didn’t reprise their iconic roles — but their characters were still mentioned a few times during the season.
Fred Hayes/Disney
During a later scene when Bleu met with the East High drama club,he gave an update on everyone’s charactersin the fictionalHigh School Musicalmovie: Taylor and Chad are happily married, Martha is a world-famous choreographer, Ryan is partnered withPentatonix singer Scott Hoyingand getting ready to welcome twins, and Gabriella and Troy are still together but in “couples therapy.”
Alamy
Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, series creatorTim Federlenotes that even though he was able to write new endgames for the beloved characters, he was really adamant about staying as true to the original franchise as possible.
“I always felt like I was being handed a franchise that I wanted to put away either as intact as when I found it, or at least different with a new generation twist,” Federle says. “I really wanted the endorsement of the OGs and they were so cool to play.”
In fact, he enlisted the help of the original stars to write their new storylines. “When I had them on set, I was like, ‘What is most important to you?’” he recalls. “Because I had written something for Kaycee and she was like, ‘I think Martha would be a world-famous choreographer.’ I was like, ‘Put it in the script.’”
“It really was aboutHigh School Musicalwas an extraordinary thing in all of their lives,” he says. “[But] also, they’ve had these big lives outside and their own heartbreaks and successes and ups and downs.”
Though the new season didn’t explicitly mention what Sharpay has been up to, Federle suggests she’s on a similar career path to Tisdale.
“She’s now a full CEO and I think she’s a Goop competitor that’s about to IPO,” he says, adding the pink-loving theater girl definitely “consulted onBarbieand coachedMargot [Robbie]through” her character. “I think she’s a businesswoman, of course.”
When Federle spoke with PEOPLE on set last year, he noted that his main goal in creating the series was that people would fall in love with the new generation of Wildcats.
“What’s been so heartening after all these years is seeing how these kids have really ascended the throne and now are really the center of the show. So as fun as it is to have the OGs back, and we would not have a show without them, this really is Josh and Sofia and Dara and all of their show now.”
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All four seasons ofHSMTMTSare now streaming on Disney+.
source: people.com
