“Harry Styles could never…”
Harry Styles AND Shawn Mendes were name-dropped by Olivia Rodrigo in the first episode of
the all-new second season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and fans can’t
seem to contain their excitement.
Let’s break it down.
Olivia Rodrigo has a lot to celebrate as she just dropped the third single of her upcoming
debut album Sour on Friday, AND graced the SNL stage over the weekend for the first time
to perform her smash-hit songs.
This all happened on the same weekend that she stepped back into her TV role as Nini
on season two of Disney+’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which debuted on
the exact same day.
Coincidence or not, fans couldn’t help but point out one major reference made about not
one, but TWO highly renowned artists while tuning into the first episode, when Olivia
Rodrigo’s character Nini name-dropped Harry Styles, causing the perfect collision of two
dedicated fandoms.
And just FYI, for those of you who haven’t yet tuned into the episode, what I’m about
to say DOES contain a small spoiler so please only continue watching if you’re ok with
knowing what goes down.
With that said, the scene from the episode titled “New Year’s Eve” starts out with
Ricky, played by Joshua Bassett, confessing that he will never break up with Nini again,
saying QUOTE, “You know, good relationships are all about good communication.”
Buuuut Nini couldn’t exactly find the right time to break the news to him that she was
moving to Denver in two weeks after getting into the Youth Actor’s Conservatory.
The two spend Christmas together as Nini is torn between going and staying to be with
Ricky when he serenades her with a new song called “The Perfect Gift” as his gift
to her… but it was the Harry Styles reference that was the REAL gift to fans.
“Ricky, that was incredible.
Harry Styles could never!”
The two had a sweet moment together, as Ricky expressed to Nini just how important she is
in his life while he was also grappling with the divorce of his parents, making it that
much harder for her to deliver the news.
He said, QUOTE “This — us — it’s, like, the one thing I can always count on.
You’re my home.”
And as mentioned earlier, Shawn Mendes was also referenced in the episode, when Ricky
was told that he looks and sings just like the popstar when hoping to audition for a
new role.
Check it out:
“You’re totally gonna get the part.
You look like Shawn Mendes and you sing like Shawn Mendes.”
Quite a compliment, I’ve gotta say, annnnd he’s not wrong…
Meanwhile, fans couldn’t contain their excitement over the two references, taking to social
media to share how pleasantly surprised they were to hear the familiar names in the show.
One fan tweeted, “I’m literally living for the Shawn and Harry references,” while
another person said, “Nini mentioning Harry Styles to Ricky is something I can’t handle
rn.”
The Harry reference especially caused fans to lose all chill as it came just days after
Joshua called him “cool,” “hot” and “charming” in an exclusive interview with
yours truly AKA Clevver News.
He even questioned his own comments about Harry, asking…
“I guess this is uh, This is also my coming out video, I guess?”
This quick comment prompted many to believe that Joshua may have in fact come out.
Although he has yet to specifically comment on his sexual preference, Joshua followed
up the viral comment with an Instagram post thanking fans for standing for love and acceptance
and saying QUOTE, “Love who you love shamelessly.
It’s ok to still be figuring out who you are.
Life’s too short to let ignorance and hatred win.
I choose love.”
Naturally, fans were LIVING for the reference for this reason alone with one user saying,
“Me watching Nini say “Harry Styles could never” to Ricky after Joshua Bassett just
came out because of Harry Styles.”
The love has definitely come full circle, so while we wait for an epic Harry Styles/Joshua
Bassett collab to result from this, we’ll just be streaming the rest of High School
Musical: The Musical: The Series season 2 to see what continues to transpire with the
remainder of Ricky and Nini’s love saga!
For more on Olivia, click right over here to see what she had to say about quitting
music in the future.
Then be sure to let me know all your thoughts on those Harry Styles and Shawn Mendes references
right down here in the comments.
I’m your host Sussan Mourad, you can find me on TikTok @Sussan_Mourad, bye guys!