High School Musical is probably a generation defining teen comedy film franchise that set the tone for the genre in the 2000s decade. Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez became sensations among teenagers across the world. The franchise had three films releasing between 2006 and 2008. All three films set new records for themselves. High School Musical became the highest viewed Disney Channel Original Movie with 7.7 million viewers in the US watching the premiere broadcast; until its successor. High School Musical 2 broke the record held by its predecessor by a whopping 10 million margin in number of viewers on its premiere broadcast in the US. The third film, High School Musical 3: Senior Year released theatrically and set the record for the largest opening weekend for a musical film; subsequently becoming the highest grossing film in the franchise.
Rumours about a fourth High School Musical film have been around since 2016, when Disney announced a casting call for the fourth film.
High School Musical 4- What we know so far
Plans for a fourth film were announced in 2016, but further updates have been few since then. What is known, is that none of the original cast will be returning for the fourth film, and it will focus on a new batch of students at East High School.
Reports of the new characters in High School Musical 4 came out in March 2016. The film will supposedly revolve around soccer this time, instead of basketball. The new characters that are reported to be in the film will be- Erin, the only girl on the boys’ soccer team; Derek, the bad boy in the film who falls for Erin; Campbell, the captain of the soccer team, and also Sharpay and Ryan Evans’ cousin; Nathalie, Erin’s BFF and East High’s most loyal cheerleader; and Tamara, former queen of East High trying to reclaim her fame in the school.
Bart Johnson, who played Coach Bolton in the first three films, is expected to be back for High School Musical 4 as well. Although there have been very few updates since the film was first announced to be “in the works” in 2016, fans can hope that Disney provides an update soon on the film. If and when the film does happen, it is expected to release on Disney’s streaming service, Disney+.