Fans of the High School Musical movies are convinced that two characters were secretly dating each other.

Chad Danforth ( Corbin Bleu ) and Ryan Evans ( Lucas Grabeel ) are two popular characters from the Disney trilogy and showed no obvious signs of being a couple.

Chad was Troy's ( Zac Efron ) best friend and had a romance with Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman), while Ryan was the twin brother of scheming Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) and romanced Kelsi Nielsen (Olesya Rulin).

So, where are fans coming from with this latest theory?

It all centres on that tense baseball scene from the first sequel, High School Musical 2.

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Image:
The Disney Channel/Kobal/Shutterstock)

Ryan and Chad are rivals as they play the game together, providing a strong atmosphere between the pair.

They then go on to swap clothes and become much closer, to Troy's chagrin.

However, fans now think there was a homoerotic subtext that many viewers were missing all along.

Naturally, they took to social media to share their new take on the scenes between the pair.

One HSM fan wrote on Twitter: HSM2 was able to make baseball gay...the sexual tension between Ryan and Chad is (water drops emoji)."

Lucas Grabeel and Corbin Bleu at the High School Musica premiere in 2006 (
Image:
Shutterstock)

Another fan of the films tweeted: "Chad and Ryan are gay" I say into the mic.

"The crowd boos. I begin to walk off in shame, when a voice speaks and commands silence from the room.

"She’s right" I hear. I look around for the owners of the voices. There in the fifth row they stands: Lucas Grabeel and Corbin Bleu."

Elsewhere, another noted: "the high school musical 2 scene of I don’t dance is major gay vibes between Ryan and chad. Even the little clothes swap. #hsm2 #DisneyPlus "

A different fan was convinced of Chad and Ryan's love story in the third film: "m u s i c a l l y stick to the status quo outdoes i don't dance but it's all about the sweet gay character development on both ryan and chad's sides.

"They ARE In Love now they both dance. with each other."

Finally, another fan totally went the extra mile and is also convinced that Sharpay is a lesbian too.

They concluded: "ryan and sharpay were both gay. ryan was chad’s bf and sharpay was jealous of gabriella cause she wanted her, not troy."

Well, we're certainly going to look at the films differently now they're on Disney+.

The High School Musical trilogy is available now on Disney+.

What do you think of this High School Musical fan theory? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.