Disney Wants to Play Ball with High School Musical 4

It's "game on" again for the East High Wildcats as the Disney Channel has announced that High School Musical 4 will premiere in 2010 with an all-new cast, Zap2It.com reports.

According to a Disney statement, the next installment will center on a "classic love triangle" set against a new generation of Wildcats and their crosstown rivals, the West High Knights, according to the L.A. Times.

Gary Marsh, entertainment president of Disney Channels Worldwide, seemed enthusiastic about tackling an effective reboot of the franchise without characters such as Troy, Gabriella and Sharpay that fans have come to know and love. "In crafting this next iteration, we've challenged the entire creative team to raise the bar again and create something truly worthy of this extraordinary global phenomenon," Marsh said, reassuring loyal HSM supporters that the new movie will live up to their high expectations.

A new addition to the "High School Musical" franchise certainly makes fiscal sense to Disney: The second movie's premiere still boasts the highest-rated basic cable telecast of all time, with 18.6 million viewers, and the threequel, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, went on to gross $250 million at the worldwide box office.