Stories have a way of making people dream of one day stepping inside their worlds.
Storytelling has the unique power to make something seemingly mundane feel utterly charming and captivating — even, or perhaps especially, in the case of schools.
Schools are about as universal a setting as you can find. They provide the backdrop for countless stories, but there are also those rare cases where the school transcends simply being a place for characters to interact and becomes an attraction all its own.
Certainly, there are a few fictional schools we can all name where receiving an acceptance letter would come as quite the delight.
Including the one and only performing arts high school — Hollywood Arts.
First officially teased back in August, fans of the popular teen series Victorious were delighted to see that a new generation of future star-powered talent was ready to take over their predecessors’ old stomping grounds.
Not only do we have a new crop of teens navigating school, relationships and life, but they’re doing it all while trying to achieve their own Hollywood dreams.
And leading them?
None other than Trina Vega — the now grown-up older sister of, at least in-universe, one of Hollywood Arts’ biggest success stories.
Clearly, there are some role reversals in play.
Trina is still trying to break through and achieve the fame she spent her teenage years chasing. Only now, she’s using her position as a teacher as another opportunity to make those dreams come true.
While technically needing to help the kids under her charge achieve theirs.
The humor is already taking center stage.
And said hilarity is on full display in the series’ first trailer.
There is something to be said about being able to feel the familiarity of an era and the thrill of something new in the same breath.
It’s no easy feat for any returning series — rebooted, revived or spun off — to feel like a seamless extension of its predecessor without simply recreating what came before.
But Hollywood Arts appears ready to hit that mark as effortlessly as one would onstage.
Once more, we have a lively and talented cast of students who aren’t simply aspiring to fame and chasing their dreams — they’re hungry for them.
And clearly, if they were able to make it into Hollywood Arts, they’ve already made it through the first hurdle.
From the various displays of talent scattered throughout the trailer, these students certainly have the skills. They also appear to have the same capacity for humor and teenage hijinks as the original friend group we followed through those halls.
While we’re rather confident these teens are perfectly capable of getting themselves into — and hopefully out of — some very interesting situations, it seems unlikely they’ll be responsible for all the coming (mis)adventures.
Not while Trina Vega is their teacher.
While it’s highly evident that Trina is still very much the same person we knew as a teenager — craving her big break, completely over-the-top and occasionally a little more self-focused than she probably should be — she’s also grown up.
She’s faced years of rejection.
And now she knows what it’s like to be recognized as Tori Vega’s sister rather than for any credits or accomplishments capable of shining outside that shadow.
Even if we don’t always see it front and center, that sting of rejection and feeling left behind has the potential to become one of the most interesting parts of Trina’s story.
Sure, she’ll probably make light of it afterward with some ridiculous comment.
Or, in true Hollywood Arts fashion, something completely absurd will happen two seconds later.
But underneath the humor, it gives Trina heart.
It also gives her something unexpectedly important in common with her student Emmy, who is slowly trying to step out from beneath the shadow of her own successful brother.
Perhaps, of all people, Trina Vega might understand that feeling better than anyone.
There are many things Victorious landed incredibly well — the music, the culture of its era and some fantastic character dynamics wrapped inside enough absurd humor to keep viewers laughing along.
Heart was certainly present, but it wasn’t always the show’s primary driving force.
And it feels like that might be exactly where Hollywood Arts can find something of its own.
If the new series can retain the humor, music and wonderfully ridiculous energy that made its predecessor so memorable while digging a little deeper into the ambitions, disappointments and relationships of its characters, it has an opportunity to become more than simply a return to familiar halls.
It can become its own thing.
Even from this first trailer, it’s difficult not to become invested in this new group of characters.
And, perhaps unexpectedly, it’s equally difficult not to want Trina to finally walk away with a solid win.
Because after all these years, Trina Vega might finally be overdue for her own standing ovation.
And no, not just because the house lights came on and everyone is being asked to leave.
A real one.
Of course, what would a music-focused series be without a soundtrack?
The new opening theme, “Here To Stay,” is now streaming, while the rest of the soundtrack is slated to arrive October 15 from Republic Records: Kids & Family — the same day Hollywood Arts arrives on Netflix.
The release will feature 16 original songs from the series, giving this new class another opportunity to prove exactly what they can do.
School is almost back in session.
And this time, Hollywood Arts has an entirely new class ready to make its mark.