Disney has officially validated a long-held rumour that one of High School Musical’s key characters is homosexual, over two decades after the film’s initial release.
The first film in the genre was produced in 2006, and two sequels followed before a TV spin-off series, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, was released in 2019.
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens starred in the films, as did Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel, who played twins Sharpay and Ryan Evans.
For years, there has been speculation regarding Ryan’s sexuality, and now Disney has confirmed it with a kiss in the TV show teaser.
The actor is repeating his role as Ryan in the fourth and last season of the show.
Ryan kisses another man and thanks him for coming to see him play alongside old classmates Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu), Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman), and Martha Cox (Kaycee Stroh) in a preview.
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 25, 2023
‘This means so much to me that you’re here. I love you,’ he says as they meet backstage.
‘Gimme that mic.’
While many fans are celebrating the news, many have said it wasn’t really surprising.
‘I think we knew this already,’ one person posted on Twitter.
‘Should we act shocked?’ another said.
Many others, though, emphasised how crucial it was for Disney to finally confront what many had theorised about for years.
‘Omg I’m crying this made me so happy,’ someone else wrote.
Another added: ‘Everyone saying “we already knew” should realise back in the day it wasn’t allowed to be made explicit. This is a big deal and is worth celebrating.’
High School Musical director Kenny Ortega has stated that while the character was always supposed to be homosexual, he “didn’t think” audiences would be comfortable with it when the film musical debuted in 2006.
In 2020 Lucas also recalled a conversation he had with Kenny.
‘I came up to Kenny one day and was like, “Hey, so can we talk about the character for a second? Ryan’s gay, right?”‘ Lucas said.
The actor went on: ‘”He [Kenny] was like, “Well, I mean, it’s a touchy subject sometimes with children’s programming – I’m not sure if Disney is ready now for that kind of thing.”.’
The actor, who is straight and previously stated that he wishes Ryan had been played by a homosexual actor, also stated that he thought gay people were underrepresented on television at the time.
‘[Coming out] is something that a lot of kids go through and don’t often see portrayed on television,’ he said.
‘At that time it was either [the gay characters were] extremely flamboyant or very closeted and kind of shut off.’
He then said he ‘took it upon’ himself to ‘make choices’ playing the character that he believed would indicate Ryan’s sexuality to audiences.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series season 4 is streaming from August 9 on Disney Plus.
Source My Celebrity Life.