Disney released the trailer for “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” on Aug. 23. Rather than making it into a movie, they are turning it into mockumentary set to come out Nov. 12. After watching the trailer and comparing it to the previous movies, I can already say I am disappointed. 

In the series, the original High School Musical films exist as fictional movies, and the entire school has watched the movies several times or more. The students at East High School are prepared to honor their school, where they had filmed the original High School Musical films, by starting their own production of High School Musical: The Musical. Each member of East High’s drama club is ready to audition for the main roles that include Troy Bolton, Gabriella Montez, Sharpay Evans, Ryan Evans and more. The series includes drama club politics, teen love triangles and drastic changes being made during the production of the musical. Each episode will have a rendition of an original song from one of the original movies.

I love that Disney is making a reboot to High School Musical, but not like this. The reason people were obsessed with the movies in the first place was because of the music, but now they’re planning to focus more on the drama. I knew there were going to be some changes in the reboot, but not as drastic as that. 

It is still to be determined if the original cast will reprise their roles in the series, but even if they did, it wouldn’t make sense with the new plot. The main idea of the series is that students of East High’s drama club are creating  their own production of High School Musical the movie. If they were to get Zac Efron (the original Troy Bolton) and Vannessa Hudgens (the original Gabriella Montez) as themselves in the series, it would just be a simple cameo, and that’s not what I would want. I was excited to see where Troy and Gabriella ended up ten years after high school. I was waiting for that moment, but the plot structure of the new series has made it impossible to be included.  

Troy and Gabriella were one of the most iconic Disney couples of our generation. Everyone’s picture of a perfect relationship was Troy and Gabriella. The iconic couple from the original films has now turned into a new love triangle in the series. They’re supposed to be “all in this together” and adding a love triangle is just going to tear them apart. Another focus of the original movies was the love between the characters. The original films had a smaller amount of drama, but the series includes a certain amount of drama that may cause bigger rifts among the characters. In all three movies, the plot focuses on a group of friends, and even though some drama was included, they always stay together in the end. With the complicated love triangle between the three main characters of the new series, I am sure someone will be heartbroken in the end, and that is no happy ending. Is it really High School Musical if there’s no united dance number at the end? 

I’m upset that Disney isn’t creating a continuation of the same plot of the original movies, but as Troy and Gabriella sang, “it’s the start of something new.”