Disney+'s High School Musical Series Season 2 Trailer Teases A Love Triangle For Olivia Rodrigo And Joshua Bassett's Ricky And Nini

When Disney+ first launched in 2019, the studio came out singing “A Start of Something New” for its High School Musical franchise with a reboot series for the popular Disney Channel phenomenon. High School Musical: The Musical: The Series successfully captured our hearts with its new cast lead by Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett, who saw sparks flying in the first season. The second season is approaching soon, and a new trailer is giving us an idea about what to expect next for Ricky and Nini.

Ahead of the Season 2 premiere, it looks like things are going to get more complicated for the East High drama students. The new trailer shows the “drivers license” singer getting into the Youth Actors Conservatory, as we learned at the end of Season 1, and Nini and Ricky are trying for a long distance. But, wait? Someone else is trying to steal the attention of Ricky as the East High students get ready for their spring musical, Beauty and the Beast.

The High School Musical series trailer starts off with Miss Jenn running into a new character played by Dancing With The Stars’ Derek Hough, who looks like an old crush of hers by the looks of her expression. Hough’s Zack is a drama teacher like she is and directing The Little Mermaid musical for North High and entering it into the Alan Menken awards for high school theatre. After feeling a bit threatened by Zack calling her students “adorable,” she decides to enter the competition with Beauty and the Beast.

As the stakes get higher for the Wildcats, Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett’s romance is being tested as they are placed physically apart by Nini’s new opportunity. Nini is feeling conflicted between following her dreams and being away from her boyfriend, but they are committed to FaceTiming every morning. Amidst their practice for the competition, they seem to meet their rivals from North High, one of which is Olivia Rose Keegan’s Lily.

Later in the trailer, there is a confrontation between Lily and Ricky that has Keegan’s character telling Joshua Bassett’s to let her know if he’s looking for a “girlfriend” who is not looking for as much space that Olivia Rodrigo’s character may need from him. Love triangle alert! Queue “drivers license,” specifically with Olivia Rodrigo’s radio hit belting out those cutting lyrics “you’re probably with that blonde girl,” because well... the shoe fits.

Aside from some cutthroat drama ahead for these theatre students, it looks like the Disney+ series will be littered with show stopping music numbers from the cast. And we can’t wait to see what Derek Hough brings to the series. Obviously he’ll be showing off the incredible moves that we all know and love from his Dancing With The Stars fame. The first episode of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is premiering on Disney+ on May 14. While we wait, check out what is new to the platform this month here on CinemaBlend.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.