"HSM:TM:TS" Showrunner Explains Possible Queer Romance for Joshua Bassett’s Character
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The Wildcats have officially arrived at Camp Shallow Lake for season 3 of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and the stage is set for new drama, lots of Frozen, and of course, summer romances.
In the first two episodes, we’ve started to see the budding relationship between Gina (Sofia Wylie) and EJ (Matt Cornett) unfold. There are still six episodes to go to see what other flirtations might develop, but in a new interview with Digital Spy, HSM:TM:TS showrunner Tim Federle addressed a possible queer romance for Joshua Bassett’s character, Ricky.
“One of the joys of a long-running show is that you get to explore all facets and all aspects of all of these characters,” he shared with the outlet. “So as a queer storyteller myself, I feel a real responsibility to try to tell the truth about the experience of young people today, which is so much more fluid and accepting and exploratory than I think it was when I was a youth.”
In episode two, “Into the Unknown,” there is a subtle hint to Ricky’s potential queer storyline. At the start of auditions for Frozen, he discusses the casting of the male leads with EJ. Ricky suggests that they could be cast together, then asks if the male leads are friends, enemies, or “lovers” — after this last guess, he gives the camera a look.
“I think particularly for Ricky this season, he's got some big things to figure out. He ends up going to summer camp, feeling like: ‘It's going to be a summer of fun, and I'm not getting involved romantically. My last entire year has been the obsession of trying to figure my romantic life out,’” Tim explained.
“And as so often happens, the best-laid plans go up in smoke when someone important distracts you,” he continued. “So I think he's definitely on a big arc this season.”
While some fans theorize that there could be a possible Ricky/Gina/EJ love triangle this season, Tim — whose own experiences at summer camp influenced season 3 plot lines, he shared with Seventeen — implied that Camp Shallow Lake can be the start of something new (we had to) for our East High theater kids.
“I think summer camp offers not just sort of fun under the sun and a little bit of scandal under the stars, but it allows you to decide who you want to be when you go back to school,” he said. “And this really is the summer that kind of changes everything.”
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