‘HSMTMTS’: Joshua Bassett, Sofia Wylie and Matt Cornett Tease Season 3 Love Triangle (Exclusive)

The Wildcats are kicking off summer with camp adventures, new memories and, yup, Frozen! The new season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is mere hours away from dropping on Disney+ and the cast was just as excited for fans to finally get a taste of their characters outside the halls of East High and to be able to see different sides now that they’re deep in the meta musical comedy’s run, which was already picked up for a fourth season.

“It’s really cool being able to push the envelope. Not a lot of shows get to go to season 3, so we’re very fortunate in that regard. To be able to push the boundaries and explore deeper on a lot of these characters,” series star Joshua Bassett, aka Ricky, tells ET of the new episodes. “And bring up a lot of storylines that maybe we wouldn’t have talked about in season 1 because we didn’t have time, but now we can explore some more intricate nuances to life and theater kids and summer camp.”

“There’s so many fun twists and turns,” the 21-year-old singer-actor teases, adding that moving to sunny Los Angeles to film season 3 “was a nice refresher for all of us.” “I speak for the cast when I say that it felt like real summer camp. It was truly a blast. And I think there’s a lot of magic in the season that people are really going to enjoy.”

Co-star Matt Cornett, who plays E.J., agreed, saying that this season was meaningful for many different reasons — “[it was the] entirety of us having fun and us living our best lives and enjoying every moment of it. I think you will perfectly see the fun and the enjoyment and the love that we put into this season. It was, overall, an incredible, incredible season.” For Sofia Wylie, who portrays Gina, putting some of the Wildcats in a different environment other than high school intrigued her, hinting that the “switch… really shows in our behavior and demeanor this season.”

But as summer camp heats up, so do the challenges that face the HSMTMTS crew — and we’re not talking about cramming for exams or racing to make theater practice on time.

“There’s definitely a lot for E.J., specifically this season. This is the summer camp that E.J. grew up going to; this is the summer camp that Nini and E.J. met at. As he says in episode 1, it’s his second home. There’s things that immediately he’s challenged with,” Cornett previews, referring to E.J.’s abrupt appointment as director of the Frozen musical production at camp. “It brings this summer to a completely different path than he originally thought it was going to be. He starts to tackle that and trying to figure out how to balance, ‘Well, this is how I wanted this summer to go and this is actually how it’s going.’ It’s a really tough challenge for him.”

Meanwhile, when the season begins, Ricky’s in a bit of a crisis as he navigates the post-breakup blues after splitting with Nini and embarks on a new relationship with Lily. But things soon come out at the start of the summer that change everything for him. 

“Ricky is tired of being sad. I think he’s had a really angsty two seasons and season 3, he’s like, ‘You know what, I’m going to summer camp and I’m not looking back. It’s summer, it’s never going to end, so may as well enjoy myself,’ which is obviously not true. But I think he has that mentality of, ‘Screw it. I’m leaving my life behind. I’m going to summer camp and I’m just going to have fun,'” Bassett says of his character’s mindset.  “And I think that can only take you so far. He makes the best of summer camp, but you can’t pretend like you’re OK when you’re not. And you can’t put a Band-Aid over an empty tank of gas. I think he’s sort of putting on a brave face, but it’s interesting to watch him navigate how you can’t always just pretend like everything’s fine and you can only hold out that facade for so long.”

Adds Wylie, “For Gina, this is the happiest you’ve ever seen her. She’s experiencing so many firsts and that’s really exciting for her, where in the past it’s kind of been a little more intimidating where then she puts up this persona of fearlessness and confidence when she’s really just scared inside. But right now I think she trusts people around her. She has a really good friend group with Courtney and Ashlyn and so she feels safe and it’s nice to see a safe Gina.”

In the romance department, E.J. and Gina begin the summer on a love high, taking small steps in their fresh new relationship. Of course, it being HSMTMTS and all, the honeymoon period is quicker than they both anticipate — especially with E.J.’s growing list of responsibilities as he attempts to put on a successful production of Frozen.