Following the release of “Camp Rock 3,” fans and “Camp Rock” alums question whether the new film will recreate the same Disney magic as the 2008 original.
‘Camp Rock 3’ premiere draws OG stars Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato
See all the OG stars at “Camp Rock 3″s Los Angeles premiere including Demi Lovato and Joe, Nick and Kevin Jonas.
Strangers still stop Maria Canals-Barrera, who starred in “Camp Rock” and “Wizards of Waverly Place,” on the street, and call her “my TV mom” and “my childhood.”
She played the selfless, no-nonsense mother to Demi Lovato’s Mitchie in the “Camp Rock” movies and says some of her favorite moments from the franchise were off camera: running to the laundromat with Lovato’s mom or listening to Lovato rehearse lyrics in her room. She calls the happenstance encounters a gift and says she’s still grappling with watching her onscreen counterparts, Lovato and the Jonas Brothers, grow up.
“It really did feel like 15 years had not gone by, but of course everybody’s in their 30s now,” Canals-Barrera, who has two daughters, tells USA TODAY. “With the Joe Bros, they’re all dads… they all have daughters. And so I go, ‘You know what it’s like.'”
“Camp Rock 3,” streaming now on Disney+, passes the mic to a new generation of campers. When Connect 3, played by Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas, return in search of an opener for their tour, the new campers, including stars Liamani Segura and Malachi Barton, vie for the coveted spot.
The 2026 sequel plays into the franchise’s success using revamped throwbacks like “Play My Music,” table-topping dance numbers, and all-too-familiar lines. (“Whatever, major loser” is back.) Lovato and the Jonas Brothers also executive produce and star in the musical movie.
As “Camp Rock 3” wrangles in familiar faces and catchy singles, fans and “Camp Rock” alums debate who the sequel is for and whether it will resonate with audiences.
“Camp Rock,” the 2008 project that helped turn Lovato and the Jonas Brothers into Disney royalty, averaged 8.9 million viewers on the day of its release. It became one of the most-watched Disney Channel Original Movies, and its soundtrack charted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 list.
“Camp Rock” broke containment, becoming a phenomenon among tweens and parents, says Ashley Spencer, the author of “Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire.”
“They were covering magazines, they were in the tabloids,” Spencer tells USA TODAY. “So that was something that Disney and Disney Channel could really only dream about manufacturing, an original concept that becomes that huge today.”
Disney has since released an arsenal of reboots with shows like “Raven’s Home,” which ran for six seasons, “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” which ran for four seasons, and “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” (in which Canals-Barrera reprises her role), which ran for three seasons, wrapping earlier this month.
Despite their success, Spencer argues the brand’s reach has changed. “They’re no longer even targeting the same tweens that they were in the 2000s,” she says. “They’re going for eight-year-olds, six-year-olds, very young. So the content is staying very young, and they’re capitalizing on nostalgia by bringing back those actors and the characters to hook the parents or single adults who want to tune in. But it’s not hitting because it’s not for you anymore.”
Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network once had a strong hold over youth’s attention, but in recent years, streaming platforms, particularly YouTube, have fractured targeted audiences. Spencer believes one way to draw older target markets is by following the protagonists as they age, like the canceled “Lizzie McGuire” reboot that centered around her life in her 30s.
“You’re really leaning into that nostalgia and that goodwill that you’ve garnered with the Gen Z and millennials,” Spencer says. “But are they going to feel passionate about this new product? Probably not in the same way.”
Micah Sanders, 26, makes fan edits of Disney Channel shows and movies on his social media pages, and says he’s watched “Camp Rock” and “Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam” more than 10 times. Following its release, he purchased a Shane Gray (Joe Jonas) doll and was drawn by the uplifting message of earworms like “This is Me.” Sanders says he’s now rooting for the sequel and its new cast.
“Disney + and Disney Channel, in general, are doing a good job of building on that nostalgia and creating new content for a new generation, but also trying to obviously get the good graces from the older generation as well,” Sanders says.
“Camp Rock” alum Roshon, who played a camper and a rapper, adds that it’ll be hard to replicate Lovato’s signature sound or the tween sweat and tears that made the TV movie a hit.
“We had all of these talented people that worked and meshed together all in one place,” Roshon says. “The Jonas Brothers and Demi’s Voice, that collision of how it sonically made you feel was different. They were raspy and rock and roll, but it was groovy and soulful too.”
Roshon, 35, highlighted his dance breaks and poked fun at his lack of dialogue in the films in a viral Instagram post earlier this month. Although he doesn’t appear in the third installment, he adds that Disney has a special talent for reaching diverse audiences.
“I’m not even a little kid no more, but I’m walking around the house singing that damn ‘Camp Rock 3’ song,” Roshon says to USA TODAY, referring to the single “One Beat Away.” “So they got a way to do the ice cream truck, hypnotizing stuff. They’re very, very good at making you love their products and fall in love with their stories.”
“Camp Rock” and “Camp Rock 2” immortalized the camp experience, its sing-alongs, bonfires, talent show and summer crushes made it a preteen fantasy. As “Camp Rock 3” marks the brand’s latest attempt to repackage that late 2000s nostalgia by crafting replicas of the cafeteria, the bunk beds and the sprawling lake, Canals-Barrera believes the 2026 release delivers on its promise.
“Even though it was a different camp, it looked exactly like the other one, almost even more beautiful,” she says. “And that smell of the dirt and the trees and the leaves and the vibe and the music and the excitement, it was all there. We want that. The original fans want to be at camp again.”