Are Zac Efron & Vanessa Hudgens in High School Musical Season 4?
DisneyHigh School Musical: The Musical: The Series is bringing back some of the original movie’s cast for one last curtain call in Season 4 – but will Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens return as Troy and Gabriella?
In 2006, Troy and Gabriella broke free from the status quo in High School Musical, the Disney Channel’s most successful original movie of all time and a worldwide phenomenon. Efron and Hudgens made one of the most iconic couples of the aughts, reprising their roles in two sequels and beginning their happy ending at university.
It’s been 15 years since Senior Year, but this week, another HSM story is coming to an end with the fourth season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
Excitingly, some of the original cast members have returned for a rather meta reunion, but everyone’s wondering: are Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens in Season 4?
Are Zac Efron & Vanessa Hudgens in High School Musical: The Series Season 4?
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens do not return in High School Musical: The Series Season 4. However, they are mentioned as characters, and are even confirmed to be a couple, albeit a couple in therapy.
While the fourth season follow the new cast as they prepare to stage their final musical – based on Senior Year, of course – it’ll also see the return of a few original stars: Lucas Grabeel (Ryan), Kaycee Stroh (Martha), Corbin Bleu (Chad), Monique Coleman (Taylor), Bart Johnson (Jack Bolton), and Alyson Reed (Ms Darbus). For the uninitiated, they’re playing fictionalized versions of themselves, as well as their characters.
In an interview with EW, showrunner Tim Federle explained why Efron and Hudgens (as well as Ashley Tisdale) didn’t reprise their roles. “It was definitely discussed,” he said.
“Here’s my fully transparent answer: First of all, Zac is busy. He has 20 movies going. Second of all, Ashley’s in LA launching a very successful line of products, and she’s a new mom, and she’s launching her own show at CBS. Vanessa’s super busy and so gracious.”
Federle realized it was to the show’s benefit, as that would have become the story. “And I really feel like the story of this series is Josh [Bassett] and Sofia [Wylie] and Dara [Reneé] and Frankie [Rodriguez] and all of them, that they’ve really risen to take center screen. So the short answer is Vanessa, Zac, and Ashley exist in our universe, but not on our screens,” he said.
Last year, both Efron and Hudgens shared Instagram posts of them outside East High. “Don’t you… forget about me,” he wrote in his caption, while Hudgens quoted Gabriella: “Do you remember in kindergarten how you’d meet a kid and know nothing about them, then 10 seconds later you’re playing like you’re best friends because you didn’t have to be anything but yourself?”
Hudgens told EW that she’d been visiting Salt Lake and felt nostalgic, so she popped over to her old stomping ground, while Efron hasn’t addressed exactly why he was also at the school.
However, both actors have spoken about the prospects of returning to the franchise. “I don’t know. We leave it up to fate. Leave it up to the gods,” Hudgens said, while Efron was more hopeful in an interview with E! News: “My heart is still there… I hope it happens.”
The show’s creator Tim Federle told TVLine that he was trying to get them both to come back. “We’d love to get Zac and Vanessa and all of them back, so we’re actively working on that right now,” he said.
Bleu returned in Season 3, but the actor was taken aback by how emotional it was to walk East High’s halls again.
He told People: “I did not expect the reaction that I had when walking back into East High. Even when I first saw it, just driving up, I took my breath away and I was like, ‘Whoa. This is doing something to me. Why?’
“It wasn’t until showing up there that all of these emotions came up. When I walked into the gym, that was actually when I started crying. I had so many life-changing special experiences in that room where we shot ‘Get’cha Head in the Game,’ where we shot ‘We’re All in This Together,’ where we had so many emotional, important scenes, crazy moments. It wasn’t until going back and just seeing it again going, ‘I can’t believe this.’ It really was gratitude.”
We’ll update this article once we know for sure if Efron and Hudgens have returned.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is available to stream in its entirety now. Find out more here.