‘High School Musical 4’ News: Disney Announced New Cast Lineup Sans Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens; Filming Date and Locations Revealed

“High School Musical 4” is long overdue for a follow-up especially when the fourth sequel was actually announced back in 2016. Not much is known about it after Numerous speculations have been out about High School Musical, but Disney refuses to break its silence.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “High School Musical 4,” the fourth movie in the franchise, will focus on a new group of East High students and their rivals at the West High Knights high school. Dan Berendsen and Peter Barsocchini, the writers in the previous “HSM” movie sequels, will still be in charge of the story while Jeffrey Hornaday has been hired to direct and choreograph the upcoming film.

The teams responsible for songwriting in the first three movies of the franchise will still be part of “High School Musical 4” with Barry Rosenbush and Bill Borden returning as executive producers as well. With almost all the production staff intact, fans can expect to feel and see the same vibe that the “HSM” movie series had exuded.

As for the cast of “High School Musical 4,” in February, Disney announced the new faces that will represent the upcoming film. The new set of cast members are Joshua Bassett, Olivia Rodrigo, Kate Reinders, Sofia Wylie, Matt Cornett, Dara Reneé, Julia Lester, Frankie Rodriguez, Larry Saperstein, and Mark St. Cyr.

"We are truly excited about this extremely talented cast and the fresh and contemporary take on this globally beloved franchise,” TV Insider quoted Disney+ senior vice president of content, Agnes Chu as saying. "From the music and dance to the characters and hilarious meta references, there is something here for fans of the originals, as well as people who are new to East High."

The announcement of the new cast comes after Disney’s president Gary Marsh launch the search for the new batch of “High School Musical 4” actors in 2016. At that time, Marsh said,

“As a way of continuing to embrace that heritage, we're excited to announce the start of something new as we launch a search for a new class of East High Wildcats to star in a fourth installment of the 'High School Musical' franchise.”

Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and the rest of the original cast members of “High School Musical” will not be reprising their roles but there were rumors that they will be back as guests stars. In any case, the “High School Musical 4” will start filming in the fall of 2020 as per The Knight Crier. It was also disclosed that the fourth movie sequel is set to be filmed at the North Penn High School (NPHS).