Disney has finally confirmed that High School Musical‘s Ryan Evans (played by Lucas Grabeel) is gay, and, as his gorgeous sister Sharpay Evans sang in High School Musical 2, “I like what I see. I like it a lot”.
Being born in 1999, I was one of those kiddos who was creepily obsessed with the High School Musical franchise. But even at a young age, I knew that the icon known as Ryan was a part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
For the longest time, fans of the series have been shipping Ryan with Chad Danforth (played by Corbin Bleu) after their hot duet in the second film. They literally switched clothes at the end of their song!!!
But anyway, Disney has finally given us the news we’ve all been waiting for — which is yes, Ryan Evans is gay — and we fkn love to see it. The cheeky confirmation came from a newly dropped sneak peek for the spin-off series, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
The snippet for the show’s fourth and final season began with a bunch of the OG cast singing on stage. This included Ryan, Chad, Taylor McKessie (played by Monique Coleman) and Martha Cox (played by Kaycee Stroh).
Ryan runs off stage to thank another male character for coming to the show. They then share a quick kiss before Ryan heads back to centre stage.
“This means so much to me that you’re here,” Ryan said.
The unnamed character then tells Ryan that he loves him before they share a smooch.
Even though it’s not a Chad and Ryan relo, I’m just glad to see LGBTQIA+ representation in a ‘yuge Disney franchise.
Prior to the snippet, High School Musical director Kenny Ortega confirmed that Ryan couldn’t be openly gay when the movie was originally made because he wasn’t sure if Disney was ready to “cross that line” with their audience.
“I was concerned because it was family and kids, that Disney might not be ready to cross that line and move into that territory yet. So, I just took it upon myself to make choices that I felt that those who were watching would grab,” Ortega said, per Variety.
Ortega also said that Ryan would’ve “come out in college”.
Since the snippet dropped, many fans have praised Disney’s decision to make Ryan’s sexuality cannon. Some have also pointed out that looking back at the plot of High School Musical 2, where Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) was jealous of Ryan ‘cos he was spending more time with Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens), makes the franchise more hilarious.
Again, as the real star of High School Musical (Ashley Tisdale, AKA Sharpay) sang this news is just “fabulous”.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series will drop its fourth and final season on August 9 on Disney+.
