“Hannah Montana” star Mitchel Musso revealed he turned down an offer to join Miley Cyrus’ 20th anniversary special because “it wasn’t the right thing.”
The actor, who played Miley Stewart’s pal Oliver Oken on the Disney Channel sitcom, gave his first-ever podcast interview on “The Joe Vulpis Podcast” and expressed disappointment with how the televised reunion event shook out.
In the Disney+ special, Cyrus celebrated 20 years of “Hannah Montana,” shared a sweet moment on a replica of the set with her dad and co-star Billy Ray Cyrus and even performed three songs as Hannah. Musso, who was absent from both the telecast and the premiere event alongside his on-screen girlfriend Emily Osment, said he wishes the special was a reunion episode of “Hannah Montana.”
“Do an episode. Do the show. The set’s still there,” Musso said, referring to the rebuilt sets of the Stewart family living room and Miley’s bedroom that were used in the special.
“The kid in me was banking on it, like ‘I can’t wait for us to all be on set again,'” said the actor, who stepped away from Hollywood 10 years ago. “And it just didn’t work out that way.”
Asked if he was offered a role in the anniversary special, Musso said, “Of course they asked me. But, like I said, it wasn’t presented correctly. … It’s too long of a wait to do it in a way that isn’t even close to, in my opinion, correct.”
“They just did it differently, and it is what it is,” he added. “It wasn’t the right thing. And I was busy doing something that was more important. But it would have been way more important if it would have just been an episode, or a movie. Of course that would have been more important. That would have been everything. I would have dropped everything — eat, breathe, sleep it.” Musso said he could easily snap back into Oliver, but he would need a wig to honor the character’s mop top.
The “Hannah Montana” anniversary special aired on Disney+ in March and reached 6.3 million views in its first three days of streaming. For Cyrus, it was a re-embracing of the show and character who catapulted her into superstardom. Aside from Billy Ray, the special featured cameos from Selena Gomez, Chappell Roan and Cyrus’ mom, Tish.
A handful of the supporting actors on “Hannah Montana” showed up for the premiere event in Los Angeles, including Jason Earles (who played Jackson Stewart) and Moisés Arias (Rico Suave). Osment posted a video to Instagram recognizing the show’s anniversary and saying she could not be a part of the reunion due to scheduling conflicts. Musso similarly posted about the “Hannah-versary” but did not address why he was absent from the celebrations.