You can change your hair, and you can change your clothes, but you can’t tell me what Hannah Montana is doing 20 years down the line?
I don’t want a reunion; I want to see what the people who raised me are doing later in life. Those of us who are too young to be millennials and too old to be Gen Z literally grew up in the golden era of television — Friends, Disney Channel originals, and teen dramas were the jam. Our entire personalities are based on those characters that we obsessed over in those formative years.
So, as much as I loved seeing Miley Cyrus walk into the closet of my dreams in the Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special, wearing an outfit I would’ve killed for when I was 12 years old, I hate that the anniversary special didn’t tell me what my favourite pop star is doing 20 years later. Did Miley get back with Jake, or are she and Jesse endgame? Is she still living in her childhood home? Is Lily still Lola Luftnagle in public? And the worst cliffhanger ever: As a celebrity, does she go by Hannah Montana or Miley Stewart? I need answers. No, I deserve answers. I did my waiting (sic, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004 ).
It was the same with the High School Musical (2016) reunion. A perfectly choreographed routine is a big ask, but is Troy still pursuing both drama and basketball? Are Troy and Gabriella still dating? Is Taylor a Senator now? Did Sharpay make it to Broadway?
What’s the point of a reunion?
I remember racing toward the television every evening to catch Disney Channel when Miley took off her wig during her concert and came clean about living a double life as Hannah Montana. I remember yelling, crying, and frantically checking the TV schedule for new episodes, still in denial that childhood was ending. Because that’s what these characters were for us — our childhood wrapped in jokes, awful outfits, silly songs, and life lessons. So every time I see an actor walk onto the sets that I grew up on, it doesn’t just break the fourth wall; it knocks down the whole house.
Which is why the Hannah Montana reunion felt rushed, awkward, unnecessary, and lacked depth and any real acknowledgement of the worldwide impact it had on a generation. Why were Justin Bieber and Cara Delevingne, among other random celebrities, a part of the Friends reunion? They served no real purpose apart from adding to the hype and were still in diapers when the show first aired.
It was lovely to know that Miley Cyrus wanted to give back to the show that she grew up on and that launched her career. Several of us fans wept a little when she said, “What I’m loving about this special is that it’s my kind of reclaiming of merging Hannah and Miley together.” But we still didn’t get to see Hannah Montana.
From lunch boxes, pens, stickers, to ID cards, Hannah Montana was a cultural icon. Even my 85-year-old grandmother knows who Hannah, or, as she likes to call her, “Haina”, is.
It is always a joy to see actors and artists reflect on and revisit a work that shaped their careers and provide insight into it. But the sad truth is that in those early years without social media, bonds were not based on an actor’s Instagram or X accounts; it was their quirks and the random tidbits of gossip about them from teen magazines. They defined many childhoods, and if nostalgia is the driving force behind these reunions, then let’s please address the elephant in the room and also show the characters that inspired, angered, and influenced a generation. Friends from Friends, Lizzie McGuire, Hannah Montana, Alex Russo (Wizards of Waverly Place) were the real influencers.
If time, energy, and money are being spent on creating a reunion, it can also be spent taking 20 minutes out of that reunion to transport us back to the good old times.
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Kill your darlings
Film and TV characters from the late 90s and early 2000s were gritty, quirky, smart, and kind. They embodied the best traits, but were still somehow not without their faults, showing that nobody is perfect and that there is, in fact, room for improvement everywhere. They are responsible for making younger generations so vulnerable, aware, and brave enough to put their foot down when something isn’t fair. They influenced and educated in ways parents and schools never could; they helped form bonds and friendships that last even to this day and core memories that ignite both joy and sadness.
By not giving them a narrative, the impact of these shows is being yanked. Psychologists and sociologists know it better than most, but television, film and pop culture shape lives more than people care to admit. The only reunion so far which has addressed a character’s impact is the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts (2022). The image of Robbie Coltrane tearing up while he tells the camera that Hagrid will always be there is enough to make any Potterhead cry like a baby.
“The legacy of the movies is that my children’s generation will show them to their children. You can be watching it in 50 years time, easy. I’ll not be here, sadly. But Hagrid will,” these words by Coltrane, who played the loveable half-giant Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter series from the 2000s, highlights the impact that the gamekeeper and groundskeeper for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had.
The ‘favourite character must die’ trope is all very well in theory; however, it is not practical in a reunion. Therefore, if one is making a “reunion”, please also reunite the characters and not just the actors.
They made you what you are; they deserve more respect than being talked about as if they no longer exist. The beauty of a story is that it is everlasting; no character ever truly dies or is wiped away from popular imagination (any X-Men movie ever is proof of that).
Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)