East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah has been through a lot regarding Disney’s magical touch, and its latest renovation was due to season two of Disney Plus’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. 

During season one of Disney’s 2019 success, many Troy Bolton fans found themselves crushing on Joshua Basset’s Ricky Bowen, while Chad Danforth and Taylor McKessie lovers shipped Larry Saperstein’s Big Red with Julia Lester’s Ashlyn Caswell. All across the board, season one touched everyone’s hearts and left most teenagers with something to look forward to every week until the final episode aired. 

Almost exactly a year and a half after the original release of episode one, season two was uploaded to Disney’s streaming service. While only two episodes have been released now, it’s obvious which direction this show is headed. With a lot of hype surrounding the entirety of the show, the producers had a lot riding on their shoulders; everyone expects to see even more greatness than what was portrayed the first time. 

Within the first episode, the most obvious downfall is the lead actress’s part in this story. Olivia Rodrigo plays Nini Salazar-Roberts, a somewhat shy girl with big dreams, which seems to help Rodrigo fit the bill for a “Disney-kid” perfectly. 

The term “Disney-kid” is something that young actors and actresses will throw around when they’ve been in the industry for some time but have only stuck to creating art through Disney’s label. While Disney kickstarts a lot of people’s careers, a lot of former stars will find themselves talking about the downfalls of growing up in one specific area of the industry.

A lot of people would put Rodrigo into this category because of her start on the path to stardom in her recently canceled Disney show, Bizaardvark. While the show wasn’t exactly a hit because it fell short of the Disney Channel show mark, it still created a fan base that supports Olivia to this day.

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series has further solidified Rodrigo’s role as a “Disney-kid,” especially because of the popularity of the show and it’s success in being renewed for another season.

But Rodrigo is simultaneously growing out of her “Disney-kid” phase, as she is beginning to dabble in her own individual path like many previous stars once did. Some may question Rodrigo’s decision to continue the show because the series may be holding her back.

While listing off her accomplishments and growing fanbase, it’s nonetheless obvious, while watching the two newest episodes, that the genre of happy-pop music within the show isn’t something that fits Rodrigo’s individual voice and that it restrains her new found confidence. 

On the other side of the argument, the show itself is completely inclusive and seems to support and celebrate individuality in not only their viewers, but their cast as well, a quality that a lot of shows lack lately. Disney seems to have a love-hate relationship with the idea of individuality, and this has become clear through former Disney actors outside successes. 

Another similar example of this phenomenon is the other lead: Joshua Bassett. From an outsider’s perspective, he never had the chance to fully shine like the star that fans say he is before Disney made a mark on his name. While Bassett has gained a lot of traction recently, in tandem with Rodrigo, I could never listen to any of his own music without thinking of him as Ricky..

The show itself is a masterpiece but a second season wasn’t exactly necessary on a creative level. Die hard fans would argue that the show wasn’t made for the leads, but for the people watching from home, and chances are, when these young adults go to audition for more shows, they’ll be seen as the “Disney-kid.”