Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty; Tasia Wells/WireImage; Rodin Eckenroth/Getty
Disney announced the return of several beloved Wildcats for the fourth season ofHigh School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
East High’s resident smarty-pants,Monique Colemanwill be returning in her role as the brilliant Taylor McKessie.
Bart Johnson, who played Efron’s father and basketball coach Bolton in the series, will be reprising his role.
Additionally, Broadway veteran Alyson Reed will be back as the kooky Ms. Darbus.
It was already announced thatCorbin Bleu, Kaycee Stroh and Lucas Grabeel would be back, after appearing in previous seasons of the Disney+ show.
Monique Coleman.Courtesy Everett Collection
During D23, it was revealed that the upcoming fourth season will follow the characters as they return to East High for their senior year, only to find out that the school is being used to film the long-awaitedHigh School Musical 4: The Reunionmovie, and they’ll all be playing featured extras.
Creator Tim Federle told PEOPLE 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.
Although they haven’t signed on to return as Wildcats, East High’s power couple Troy (Zac Efron) and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) each posted their own tribute to their HSM days this summer.
Efron, 34,shared a photo of himself on Instagram, in front of East High in Salt Lake City in July.
“Don’t you… Forget about me ✊🏼” he captioned the post, referencing fellow famous teen filmThe Breakfast Club.
Alyson Reed as Ms. Darbus inHigh School Musical.Fred Hayes/Disney Channel
Also not joining in the antics this season is the show’s breakout star,Olivia Rodrigo. After appearing as a guest star in season 3, the “Sour” singer, 19, willnot reprise her role as Niniin the upcoming season.
“What I wanted to say with Nini’s 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,” Federletold PEOPLE of Rodrigo’s exitin the season 3 finale.
“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.”
On Sept. 23, Disney+ confirmed that season 4 isofficially in production.
source: people.com
