Will Joshua Bassett Get a Queer Storyline in High School Musical?

A queer romance might be brewing for Joshua Bassett’s character in season three of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

In a recent scene, Bassett’s character, Ricky, briefly talks with EJ (played by Matt Cornett) suggesting they might star as male leads in the camp’s Frozen remake. He then goes on to propose that the characters could be “Friends? Enemies? Lovers?”

The Disney+ hit's showrunner, Tim Federle, opened up in an interview with Digital Spy and addressed fans’ theories surrounding the character's sexuality.

“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 said. Federle continued by talking about translating his own experiences as a queer writer into the show.

“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,” he said.

Basset came out as bisexual last year, and his character might be following in his queer footsteps.

He shared with Attitude Magazine that he would be “super open” to have his character be a part of the LGBTQ+ community; “I trust the writers, and I trust Disney to do what’s best, and you know what, I would love that.”

Federle alluded to Ricky’s upcoming journey by saying, "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.'”

He followed up by highlighting how this season would be a “big arc” for Bassett’s character.

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series airs weekly on Disney+.