‘HSMTMTS’: Will Olivia Rodrigo’s drama become a season 2 storyline?

It’s time to head back to East High people. High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (or HSMTMTS if you’re too lazy to type it out like us), dropped a trailer for season 2 on Thursday, and the drama is heating up. 

In case you need a HSMTMTS recap: after breaking up over the summer, Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) and Ricky (Joshua Bassett) are back together. But Nini is swapping schools to go to a fancy performing arts program. Meanwhile, Gina and Ashlyn cook up a plan so Gina can stay at East High. Also Carlos and Seb remain the couple to root for throughout the series. 

But eagle-eyed fans have made a connection between a new character for season 2 and Olivia Rodrigo’s hit song “Driver’s License”. Many now are wondering if Rodrigo & Bassett’s outside drama contributed to season 2 of HSMTMTS.

Break up song gone right

Everyone and their mother knows “Driver’s License” at this point. The debut single of Olivia Rodrigo, it quickly rose to the top of the charts and cemented her place among the pop titans of 2021. It didn’t hurt Tiktok helped launch the song to the heavens as well. 

Just as popular as the song was the rumors surrounding it, as many assumed Olivia Rodrigo wrote the song about her break up with HSMTMTS costar Joshua Bassett. The two never made their relationship official, but fans quickly picked up on the two spending more time together outside of set. Then, the couple split, and Joshua ended up dating fellow Disney star Sabrina Carpenter. 

If you want to believe the rumors, Rodrigo wrote “Driver’s License” about Bassett breaking up with her and possibly cheating on her with Carpenter. Both Bassett and Carpenter have released songs that seem like responses to “Driver’s License”, though both deny the songs were written about Rodrigo’s hit. 

“And you’re probably with that blonde girl”

Now what does all this drama have to do with HSMTMTS season 2? In the new trailer, it’s clear Nini & Ricky are trying to make their long-distance relationship work, but there’s issues. More importantly, there’s an issue named Lily (Olivia Rose Keegan). 

While we don’t know whether she’s a North High enemy or a transfer to East High, we do know she’s getting flirty with Ricky in Nini’s absence. In the trailer, we can tell the drama of being separated is affecting Ricky & Nini’s relationship, and immediately we cut to Lily being flirty with Ricky at some event. 

In case it wasn’t clear by the subheading, Olivia Rose Keegan is blonde, and gets to keep her blonde hair in her role in HSMTMTS season 2. One of the most popular lyrics of “Driver’s License” is “And you’re probably with that blonde girl, who always made me doubt/She’s so much older than me, she’s everything I’m insecure about”.

Intentional casting?

As much as we want to hope Disney is just being shady AF with these casting decisions, the timelines just don’t match up. Even though COVID-19 delayed filming of HSMTMTS season 2, filming wrapped up by the end of 2020. “Driver’s License” didn’t drop until the second week of 2021. 

Plus, as much as we love celebrity drama, Joshua Bassett & Olivia Rodrigo are literal teenagers. Of course their breakup is going to be dramatic, just like every other teen couple on Earth. If anything, their breakup imitated their characters’ season one relationship. 

Even if “Driver’s License” didn’t inspire HSMTMTS season 2, we’re excited to see what comes next for our East High favs. Season 2 will premiere on Disney+ on May 14th, with weekly episodes airing Fridays.