Corbin Bleu returns to the 'High School Musical' franchise on Disney+

An original "High School Musical" star is returning to the franchise that helped make him a star.

This time out, Corbin Bleu is playing what he calls a "warped version" of himself in the Disney+ series, "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series."

For season three, Bleu and the cast of the show are at summer camp.

In the first "High School Musical" movie back in 2006, Bleu played Chad Danforth. Now, dozens of roles and 14 years after last playing Chad, he's back for a whole new experience.

"It feels so good to be back and to be done in such a beautiful and such a right way," Bleu said. In the show, he is a summer surprise for the musical theatre students of East High who are attending Camp Shallow Lake.

"He's so in on the joke and playing a kind of lightly jaded version of himself which, of course, pays off in a way towards the end," said Tim Federle, the show's creator. Bleu said he went through his "own process" of trying to distance himself from the franchise and play other characters, do other things. But now, he says he's all right with "High School Musical."

"It's such a prime example of enough time has passed and, and enough appreciation of what it did for my career and what it still does to this day that I can look at it with such fondness and also still be able to make fun of it and come back to it and just, you know, with open arms," Bleu said.

In the show within a show, "host" Bleu is shooting a documentary for Disney+ about the first camp to put on a production of "Frozen."

Season three of "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series" premieres Wednesday on Disney+.

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