Photo: Anne Marie Fox/Disney
High School Musical: The Musical: The Seriestook fans on an emotional roller coaster for the season 3 finale.
After taking place at the iconicEast Highfrom theHigh School Musicalfilms the past two seasons, season 3took place at summer camp— a location decision made largely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to creatorTim Federle.
“We had an entire [season 2], episode 12 written, table read, giant ‘Menkies’ performance [that we scrapped],” Federle tells PEOPLE. “We had so many COVID concerns in Salt Lake City and many of us had been in Salt Lake for over a year for season 2 that we ended up pulling the plug early because I just needed to get the cast back home to safety.”
Anne Marie Fox/Disney
Federle reveals that the season 3 episodes for Rodrigo — who appeared only as aguest starthis season — were shot in three days before the singer went on herSourtour. “All of that was shot with this crazy schedule in mind, which Olivia deserves because she is the queen of the world,” he says.
In writing her exit, Federle says he really wanted to portray the complexities of endings. “What I wanted to say with Nini’s story [and] with EJ’s (Matt Cornett) story is that everyone can’t have a perfect, happy ending every season, but there’s always a future where you’re driving off into something that could be even better or at least teach you something about yourself,” he explains.
“The song ‘Born to Be Brave’ is sentimental to me. I think it’s the theme of the entire series. We’ve always strived to tell stories that arerepresentative and modern and queerand true and I just felt like there was no more beautiful way of doing that than reminding Nini that when she gets in the car, those voices are always gonna be with her.”
AsNini drives off into the night, the show also wraps upher storyline with Bassett’s Rickyas she gifts him a lottery ticket for his 18th birthday, completing his summer bucket list.
“The lottery ticket was a pitch from Ilana Wolpert [in our writer’s room] and was to say our fundamental dynamic as Ricky and Nini may have changed, but [they] will always know things about the other one that no one else knows. [They’ll] always be each other’s first loves. I thought that was a really poignant beat.”
As Nini and Ricky’s story comes to a close, his journey with Gina is seemingly just getting started as she professes her feelings for Ricky at the end of season 3.
“I had written an entire original version where it was Ricky declaring his feelings for Gina and then I sort of realized I’ve done that before,” Federle reveals. “Ricky had a break the internet, I love you speech and I thought this time it’s about Gina being in the driver’s seat.”
For the special scene, Federle reveals that he was so nervous about leaks getting out, that he actually didn’t let the crew read the script. “Only Josh and Sofia and the director read that scene. We literally sent the rest of the cast out into the hall. We broke as many of the crew as we could. We shot it as privately as possible in two takes. To me, it was a really thrilling midpoint to where these two characters are going next.”
While a handful ofOGHSMstarshave already appeared on the series, including Lucas Grabeel, Kaycee Stroh andCorbin Bleu, Federle confirms that an invitation has been extended to all of the originalHSMstars to cameo in season 4.
“Now it’s a matter of juggling and holding my breath and praying and lighting candles and seeing who wants to come play with us,” he says. “So I have high hopes, but I can tell you we’ve engaged a lot of people and it’s gonna be a really exciting season.”
As for the rest of the cast, Federle adds that almost everyone in the season 3 finale “is going to make their way back into the show” next season, including new additions Maddox (Saylor Bell) and Jet (Adrian Lyles) as well as Cornett’s EJ, who recently graduated. “If you love somebody in season 3, they’ll probably be back, but we’re always sort of juggling the number of people whose stories we’re telling.”
Going into season 4, Federle adds that the upcoming season is a “real return to the original” season. “[It’s] the real return to why the show got greenlit in the first place, which is real theater kids singing at this iconic location, aka East High.”
Looking even further to the future, Federle admits he already has an endgame for the show in mind but doesn’t “take for granted future seasons.” “I think I’ve glibly in the past said we’re gonna go seven seasons and I would still love that but I think other thanCobra Kaiwe’re just about the longest running reboot there is right now, which we’re all super, super grateful and proud of. I definitely have endgames in mind for all of the characters in terms of how long the show goes. I think that’s gonna be a decision that Disney and I come to together.”
When the show’s final season does come, Federle adds that the door is always open for anyone to return, including Rodrigo. “There’s a lot of people who have become a part of our extended family and I think when we reach that day, my hope would be that it’s just a big cheerful, joyful party on set.”
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High School Musical: The Musical: The Seriesseason 3 is currently streaming on Disney+.
source: people.com
