'HSMTMTS' Creator Tim Federle Reveals Why He Ended the Show with Season 4: 'Let's Go Out on Top' (Exclusive)

Federle tells PEOPLE the emotional way he told the cast the series was ending, plus the musical he wishes they did

After four seasons, the final curtain is closing on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series — and thankfully for the cast, they got to do it on their terms.

Going even more meta than ever, the new season follows the East High students as they prepare to put on a stage production of High School Musical 3: Senior Year, only to have their plans derailed when it’s announced that Disney is making the long-awaited High School Musical 4: The Reunion movie at their high school, and they'll all be playing featured extras.

In addition to cameos from the OG High School Musical cast, there are numerous nostalgic moments as the show bids a final farewell to East High.

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, creator Tim Federle reveals that it was his decision to end the series with its recent fourth season.

Related: 'HSMTMTS' First Look: Cast Tease 'Full-Circle' Season 4 with OG Wildcats (Exclusive)

“I went to Disney and said, ‘Let's wrap now.’ They said, ‘Okay, we got it. Let's go out on top,’” Federle recalls. “I shut off the possibility of a fifth season because I didn't want the cast or crew who had put so many years into the show to go away over a hiatus then if we didn't get renewed or now we're in the middle of a strike, it would've really sucked to end on a cliffhanger.”

Following his discussion with Disney about the final season, Federle recalls how he told the cast the series was ending right before they filmed this season’s notable flashback episode, which takes viewers back to the pilot.

“I took the cast out to dinner as we were shooting 406, and I said, ‘Tomorrow you're about to receive a script in your inbox. That script is the season finale. I need to tell you guys something that I don't think is going to surprise you. It's actually the series finale,’” Federle recalls.

He adds that the revelation only helped build the cast’s onscreen emotions during filming. “In the flashback episode when [Miss Jenn] says, ‘Being your teacher was enough,’ and [Ricky] says, ‘What am I supposed to write in a gratitude journal? This is what I'm grateful for,’ the night before they had been told that we were going to wrap the series, and those emotions were so close to the surface and it made me mostly just feel so grateful that I got to end the show on my terms. It was a big experience.”

Related: 'HSMTMTS' Cast Reflect on Show's Legacy Ahead of Final Season: 'Best Times of My Life' (Exclusive)

For Federle, the emotional flashback episode was something he’s been wanting to do since season 2. “At the end of season 2, we had a season that ended pretty quietly. They give up on the competition. That was not what was originally written,” he reveals. “I had written a big flashback episode that we actually table-read and were starting to prep in production, and then COVID [happened].”

“The reality is we literally put in a drawer, that script, which involved an actual competition at the [Menkie Awards],” he continues. “It was a really, really fun concept that was frankly the big explosive episode fans were right to expect. Instead, we rejiggered it and simplified it, and it was the choice in that moment for me, which was, ‘I need to get the cast and crew home safely and alive over writing the best ever finale.’”

After shelving the episode in season 2, Federle says he and writer Chandler Turk reworked the episode for the final season. “The reason we wanted to give that context was because there's something so emotional about going back and seeing how meek Ashlyn was, how third-wheel Kourtney felt in her life before she stepped into her own stardom, how unseen Carlos felt, how ungrounded Miss Jenn was as an early teacher,” he says.

“For Ricky and Gina, our endgame star couple, I loved the no-way reveal that Gina is the reason Ricky actually auditioned for the club and that Ricky ended up becoming the reason Gina did, because I think one of the amazing things about high school is 90% of it you never think about again, but 10% of it follows you the rest of your life.”

He adds that filming the flashback episode was a big adjustment for the cast as they got back into their season 1 characters. “I remember Josh put on the blue sweatshirt and he was like, ‘I'm freaking out. I literally feel like we're shooting the pilot.’ For Sofia, it was such an adjustment for her to go back to walls up, claws out Gina. For Julia [Lester], it was taking out the extensions and going back to short haircut Ashlyn. It was just such a trip. It was really emotional and really cool.”

Though Federle never started writing a fifth season, he notes that there is one musical he still wishes they could have done.

“The one that got away is The Greatest Showman. I really wanted to do Sofia and Josh [as] Zendaya and Zac Efron’s [characters]. In my head, Adrian Lyles' Jet would've played Barnum.”

As for an HSMTMTS spinoff down the road? Federle knows to never say never.

“I would totally consider it,” he teases. “It's nothing active. The obvious extension would either be leaping to college, and then it's a different type of series with a different title, or a reunion movie with the series cast. Then I think it's just a matter of how long we wait for that?”

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Season 4 of HSMTMTS is currently streaming on Disney+.

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