Descendants: The Rise of Red drops on Disney+ on Friday, July 12, serving as the fourth installment in the beloved musical franchise. The film follows Red, who couldn’t be more different from Cinderella and Prince Charming’s optimistic teenage daughter, Chloe. When unforeseen circumstances force them to travel back in time, the two must find a way to work together and save Auradon from Red’s mother, the Queen of Hearts.

The reluctant allies are introduced to Ruby Rose Turner’s, Morgan Dudley’s, and Dara Reneé’s characters during their journey to the past. While Reneé portrays Ursula’s villainous sister, Turner and Dudley play young versions of the Queen of Hearts and Cinderella. The stars were enthusiastic about stepping into the roles and the creative freedom that comes along with it, teasing unexpected twists on classic fairy tale characters.

Screen Rant chats with Ruby Rose Turner, Morgan Dudley, and Dara Reneé about the Queen of Heart’s dark turn, Cinderella’s romance with Prince Charming, and how High School Musical: The Musical: The Series prepared Reneé for Descendants: The Rise of Red.

Descendants: The Rise of Red Focuses On Origin Stories

Screen Rant: Ruby, I love a good villain origin story, and you portray the young Queen of Hearts. What can you tell us about who she was before she took this dark turn?

Ruby Rose Turner: I can tell you that she is absolutely nothing that you can expect. She’s so different and really will make you super curious as to what the heck happened to this girl. It was like creative freedom overload. To be able to explore her and give her a foundation was the biggest honor, and I’m so happy that I was able to do it, and I hope I did it justice.

Dara, speaking of villains, Uliana is quite the instigator. How was getting a chance to step into a character who doesn’t hold anything back?

Dara Reneé: It was actually so much fun being able to release myself in that way. I could scream. The only downside about it was having to be mean to my friends, but it was really cool, and the costume made it even better. So I really felt like Uliana, and I was like, “Ursula, where you at?”

Morgan, the time travel also allows us to see Cinderella and Prince Charming before they get married. Descendants always puts these great spins on classic Disney characters, so what can you tease about this more modern take on the couple?

Morgan Dudley: Oh my gosh, that’s so cute. Ella is a bit apprehensive towards royalty, honestly. I think what’s really cute is we kind of get to see this teenage denial about her alleged crush on Prince Charming. This is him just chillin, vibing, living life, and she’s like, “Ugh.” That was really fun for me to portray.

Reneé Gives A Shoutout To Her High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Cast Mates

Dara, obviously you are a High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alumni, and I’m assuming that training was helpful here. Did you feel prepared coming into this? Was there a learning curve?

Dara Reneé: Yes. Oh my gosh, it’s actually so funny. Probably within the same week that I recorded “Jump” for High School Musical, I recorded “Perfect Revenge.” Everything was so close together. It was so much fun, and it definitely prepared me.

The High School Musical cast is filled with so many stars. Shoutout to Olivia, on a world tour right now! Steel sharpens steel, so it was very helpful to be a part of such an amazing cast that are still my family today. Shoutout to Frankie who just booked his Hulu show! I love my people. I got another good group of people that are just as talented.

About Descendants: The Rise of Red

“Descendants: The Rise of Red” follows the story of Red, the rebellious daughter of the Queen of Hearts, and Chloe, Cinderella’s perfectionist daughter. When the tyrannical Queen of Hearts incites a coup against Auradon, polar opposites Red and Chloe must join forces and travel back in time to undo the traumatic event that set Red’s mother down her villainous path.

Check back soon for our interview with stars Kylie Cantrall and Malia Baker as well.

Source: Screen Rant Plus