Joshua Bassett and Sofia Wylie tease Ricky and Gina's romance in final season of HSMTMTS
It's the start of something new in the final season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, as Ricky (Joshua Bassett) and Gina (Sofia Wylie) are finally a couple! After years of teasing and buildup, these two star-crossed Wildcats confessed their feelings for each other at summer camp at the end of season 3. And by the time they arrive back at East High for the new school year in season 4, fans will finally see them in a real, full-blown relationship.
They're keeping their romance a secret from all of their friends, though, so it's not exactly a perfect situation at the start of the season. But hey, we'll take it!
When EW visited the HSMTMTS set last year in Salt Lake City, the cast was filming the series finale, and both Bassett and Wylie revealed that Ricky and Gina's romance was their favorite part of the entire season.
disney+ Joshua Bassett and Sofia Wylie on 'High School Musical: The Musical: The Series'
"Season 4 picks up with Gina right at the start of her junior year, and it's Ricky's senior year, so there's a lot of nostalgia involved in this season, a lot of growth, and a lot of things that are also wrapping up and changing," Wylie says. "She's now entered this new relationship with Ricky, so that's really exciting for her. But she also has her mom back in town for the first time in a while, so that adds another layer of pressure and stress for her because she's wanting to make her mom proud and please her mom, but she's also wanting to be a teenage girl and have this boyfriend and get the lead of Gabriela in High School Musical 3. There's just a lot of different things happening for her that adds a lot of anxiety."
While some fans have wanted to see Ricky and Gina get together since their feelings were teased in the first season, Bassett is glad they didn't act on it in a real way until season 4.
"It coincides with Sofia and I's friendship — over the years we weren't the closest for whatever reason, we just didn't hang out often, but this season we've hung out all the time," he says. "It was so funny how in both Ricky and Gina's timeline as a couple, but also in Sofia and I's timeline as friends, there couldn't have been a more perfect time for us to finally come together in this way. It's been really cool to be able to see these characters in a healthy relationship, for the most part, and it's not toxic and rocky."
Both Ricky and Gina have learned a lot from their previous relationships — Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) and Lily (Olivia Rose Keegan) for Ricky, EJ (Matt Cornett) for Gina — and Bassett promises that fans will see just how far they've come in how they handle this romance now.
"A lot of the previous relationships that both of them have been in have been a lot of arguing and a lot of just messiness," Bassett says. "Yes, it's still messy in a lot of ways and they're still trying to figure it all out, but it's really cool to see them in a more mature relationship and genuinely caring for each other above all. And it's not selfish. It's really cool to see both the characters grow in that way."
Showrunner Tim Federle was excited to finally get to explore what Ricky and Gina's relationship would look like this season and what obstacles they'll have to overcome.
"For Ricky, he does not want another relationship to go by where he doesn't say 'I love you' first, and for Gina, she has this giant opportunity which could take her away from her friends, and she hasn't told Ricky yet, just when they're in a good place," he says. "We have a song called 'Maybe This Time' sung by Gina and Ricky and what this song represents is two characters who have been hurt before in other relationships who want to dare themselves to love again. We literally go back in time in the song to some of the most iconic Ricky and Gina locations. At the central beating heart of this show is that sometimes you end up with somebody who you didn't expect to end up with, and this song, I can't wait for people to discover it."
Wylie still can't believe that she and Bassett finally got to see their characters get together. "I truly never thought that this would happen, quite honestly," she says. "I've seen that Ricky and Gina as a couple has created quite a committed fan base throughout the series, but I never knew if it was actually going to happen or if it was just going to be one of those relationships that's kind of teased but never created or never made canon. The fact that it actually is, I'm hoping that it will excite a lot of the fans of the show and that their relationship will be able to fulfill the dreams of the people who have wanted to see them together for so long."
The romance results in one of Wylie's favorite musical moments of the entire series. "I got to perform 'Can I Have This Dance' with Josh, and that was always one of my favorite songs from the entire High School Musical franchise," she says. "Finally getting to do it was so exciting, and I just really always enjoy getting to do musical numbers with Josh. It's performed during a rehearsal table read for the High School Musical 3 production within the show."
disney+ Sofia Wylie on 'High School Musical: The Musical: The Series'
On a cold December day on set, things are heating up onstage. Ricky and Gina are sharing an intense moment together while simultaneously acting out a scene from High School Musical 3. (Just don't mention the movie production of High School Musical 4: The Reunion... it's a sore subject for the characters right now.)
"Today I had an onstage movie dialogue moment with Ricky as Troy, where we got to say the lines of one of the scenes within High School Musical 3, which is super trippy because I have watched that movie a million times over," Wylie says. "As I'm saying the lines, I can envision the movie in my head, which is always so odd to truly replicate something that's already been done before. But it's been so fun."
Bassett is excited for fans to see that iconic HSM3 moment come to life in the show's signature meta way. "We filmed a scene in a tree house where Troy and Gabriela are talking about college and the future, and it's a pretty cool juxtaposition of what's actually happening in their characters' lives," he says. "So the characters are talking as Troy and Gabriela, but really it's Ricky and Gina talking to each other. It was cool to play the nuances of that and what that looked like."
It's a culmination of what Ricky and Gina are struggling with throughout the entire final season: the future. "Season 3 was sort of Ricky's summer of fun, and he was trying to be carefree and not let things get to him and just have a good time and not think about the future," Bassett says. "But when we come back to school in season 4, it hits Ricky pretty hard that soon he is going to have to start thinking about college. He's stressing about that and figuring out what life looks like after high school, while also still trying to just figure out what this is with Gina."
As Ricky figures out how to balance living in the present while also planning for his future, Bassett found himself relating to his onscreen character more than he ever had before. "I resonate with that a lot because I moved out when I was 16 and I didn't know what I was doing and I was never thinking more than a week ahead," he says. "That can be very stressful. It's interesting to see Ricky go through that journey and grow up a little bit. Ricky is similar to me in that he's sort of a jack of all trades, master of none. He lacks direction in life, and so I love getting to explore what is Ricky's purpose?"
Meanwhile Gina is living out her dream of finally having a boyfriend... but her other dream of becoming a star can't be ignored. "Going into season 4, I didn't want to just replay what we've seen before — I wanted there to be another side of Gina," Wylie says. "There's a strength that she now has from that relationship with EJ and realizing that she deserves more. She can advocate for herself and for what she deserves, and starts to realize that you can't make everyone happy. She starts to figure out exactly what she wants, not what everyone else wants for her."
So while Ricky and Gina are all in this together, they're also breaking free — just in time for fans to say goodbye.
All eight episodes of the fourth and final season of HSMTMTS premiere Wednesday, Aug. 9, on Disney+.
These interviews were conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
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