After more than a year, Disney+'s original High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is finally back with its second, groundbreaking season, and much like the first round, this newest batch of episodes continues to deliver bops while bringing a new generation of HSM fans the diverse, representative, and queer-inclusive media they rightfully deserve!
PRIDE got the chance to speak with two of the show's leads, 20-year-old singer-songwriter Joshua Bassett, and 22-year-old Matt Cornett, about what the show means to its LGBTQ+ fans, getting to showcase a different, more vulnerable side to young men you don't often get to see in mainstream media, the High School Musical franchise's legacy of inclusivity, and more!
"I think that the beautiful thing about theater in general is it's supposed to be, and is a lot of the time, a sort of 'come as you are' medium where people are accepted and seen for who they are and celebrated," Joshua, who plays lead character Ricky in HSMTMTS and who made a splash earlier this week after a video of him gushing over Grammy-winning heartthrob Harry Styles led many to believe he was coming out of the closet, though he later said he is still 'figuring things out' and 'choosing love.'
He continued:
"I think that people might not be able to find refuge in their homes and people might not be able to find refuge in their friend groups but hopefully, they can find some sort of belonging within our show or with the people they meet through our show. I know people who have had made lifelong friends over bonding over their love for the show, and that's just a beautiful thing to me. I just hope that it can be a safe space for people to feel seen and feel comfortable and that's all you can really ask for, you know?"
"I agree," Matt Cornett, Josh's co-star who plays jock character E.J. on the series, added. "I hope it's a good safe space for people to come to, and I think there is something for everybody in our show. The good thing about having such a big cast and a diverse cast and a representative cast is there is something for somebody. No matter what you're going through, no matter who you are, no matter anything, I feel like there is somebody in our show for each person to relate to and to really look at and see themselves in. And that's something that I hope happens for the course of the show, from season one 'til the end."
Season 2 of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is now streaming on Disney+, with new episodes dropping weekly on Fridays!
