Camp Rock is back for a third film, and the Jonas Brothers are running it this time
Camp Rock 3 premieres 13 August on Disney Channel and 14 August on Disney+. Joe, Nick and Kevin Jonas return as Connect 3, while Demi Lovato stays off screen as an executive producer.
Sixteen years after the second film, camp reopens. Camp Rock 3 premieres on Disney Channel this Thursday, 13 August, and arrives on Disney+ the following day.
The setup does its job: Connect 3 lose the opening act for a major reunion tour and head back to Camp Rock to find a replacement. The campers compete for the slot, and it turns into unlikely alliances, revelations and romances — the old machinery, with a new intake.
Who returns, and who doesn’t
Joe, Nick and Kevin Jonas are back as Shane, Nate and Jason Gray. Maria Canals-Barrera also returns as Connie.
Demi Lovato, who played Mitchie Torres in the first two films, does not appear on screen. She is credited as an executive producer alongside the three brothers, which means she had a say in how this revival was shaped without stepping into it.
The new campers include Liamani Segura, Hudson Stone, Lumi Pollack, Casey Trotter, Brooklynn Pitts, Ava Jean, Malachi Barton and Sherry Cola.
Why anyone still cares
Because the audience for the 2008 original is now in its thirties and is precisely who these revivals are aimed at. It is the same calculation that has brought back half the Disney Channel back catalogue, and it hands a platform a guaranteed audience spike without building a brand from nothing.
August is thick with releases of that shape. Beyond the Netflix slate, Lanterns lands on HBO Max on the 17th.
By Lucy Bennett
Image: Disney