Does Chad and Taylor’s relationship stand the test of time? Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman spilled the tea on where their High School Musical characters would be today and if their relationship “made it” past high school.
“I feel like Taylor would be doing what I’m doing. Like, what I did,” Monique told J-14 exclusively while promoting her and Corbin’s holiday movie, A Christmas Dance Reunion. “After High School Musical, I started a foundation and I toured. So, I traveled around the U.S. — specifically in the Southeast region, which is where I’m from — and I would show episodes of my show on bullying and self-esteem. I remember taking Taylor’s spirit with me because I thought I knew that at that point, there was no way for kids to, sort of, separate me from the role that I played, and I accepted that. … I knew that if Taylor had come to their school and let them know that they mattered, that might be a little bit more significant at that moment than if they think of me as myself.”
The actress also became the UN Youth Champion following her Disney Channel days and noted, “I did become what Taylor would have.”
Corbin, for his part, knew that Chad’s future was full of coaching.
“He probably would have gone on to become a coach. I don’t think he could live a life without basketball,” the actor explained. “But also, maybe the impression that Troy and Gabriella had on him with musical theater … maybe he misses them and that’s his way of rekindling that. Maybe he secretly goes and takes like improv classes or something.”
As fans know, Corbin and Monique played Chad and Taylor in all three High School Musical movies from 2006 until the final film in 2008. The Lifetime movie A Christmas Dance Reunion — which premiered on Friday, December 3 — was their first time on screen together in 13 years. While they’ve kept a close friendship in real life, both actors aren’t so sure where Chad and Taylor’s romantic relationship would have gone after the characters graduated from East High.
“I don’t know where they would have ended up and if they would’ve made it,” Monique admitted to J-14. Together, they tossed around different ideas, one being that they broke up romantically and had a “deep-rooted friendship that continued.”
“We could really flip the script and go dark,” Corbin added. “They actually did go off and have different relationships and stuff like that. Then, they meet again, and it’s the passion that they remember that creates this whole triangle mess situation.”
While Corbin and Monique aren’t sure if Chad and Taylor would have gone the distance, the two stars have a forever friendship in real life.
“I don’t know if Monique and I didn’t share already such similarities, if we would have necessarily maintained the friendship that we did over the years. It just so happens that we played opposite each other on this project that elevated our careers, and we also happened to be cut from the same cloth,” Corbin gushed. “I appreciate her so much as a friend, and doing this project with her really has just continued to affirm that. Not to be cheesy, but there are moments that she completes me and vice versa.”
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