High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is returning for season 3, and we can’t wait to see our favorite theatre kids singing and dancing once again! The show, which is based on the Disney Channel original movie High School Musical, follows musically inclined teenagers as they put on their high school musical (duh). But how old are the actors who play these high schoolers IRL? Scroll to find out!
Season 3 of HSMTMTS takes place at Camp Shallow Lake, a sleepaway camp in California, as the Wildcats and other campers stage a production of Frozen and determine who is best in show. “You know when you go away on vacation, and you let your defenses drop? I think that happens,” creator and executive producer Tim Federle told Entertainment Tonight in July 2022. “And then lots of crazy stuff rises to the surface. It’s a really joyful, breezy season with many songs but also new relationships and new characters that shake everything up.”
“This season is a real return to some of the season 1 vibes,” Tim revealed, “and a real tribute to the DCOM mighty shoulders that we stand on as we carry the torch forward with this new generation of theater kids that’s rapidly expanding.”
The creator of the show also revealed exactly what characters will be up to in season 3 to the outlet. “For Ricky, it’s a summer of fun. I just wanted to give Joshua Bassett the opportunity to be silly and play all season. For Sofia [Wylie] as Gina, it’s a summer of firsts. Her first time away at a summer camp, first time with a boyfriend. For E.J., it’s a summer of lasts, kind of saying goodbye to his childhood.”
“And then for all of these characters, Ashlyn and Kourtney and Carlos, it’s a season of real discovery of identity,” he continued, before teasing Curda and Lyles’ characters’ arcs. “They arrive to further shake up that dynamic. Because I think when you’re a young person, you think your friend group will stay your friend group forever and then new people arrive and explode it all.”
As for Nini, who Olivia Rodrigo plays, this season will be used as her sendoff from the show. “I think she’s ready to explore the world outside the halls of East High,” the showrunner said of NinI’s future. “And Olivia herself was having such a monumental explosion in the music industry that it felt like the right thing to, frankly, work with Olivia to say, ‘How do we get you out there into the world with us taking a little bit more of a backseat?’ Which we were all proud to do to support her.”
Scroll through our gallery to discover the real ages of the HSMTMTS cast.
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