Disney Sets June 26 Premieres for ‘Teen Beach 2′ & New Series ‘Best Friends Whenever’

The sequel to Disney Channel’s wildly popular “Teen Beach Movie” will premiere this summer on June 26, the cabler announced Wednesday. “Teen Beach 2″ will make its debut immediately before the series premiere for Disney Channel’s new live-action series “Best Friends Whenever,” which stars Lauren Taylor and Landry Bender (Disney XD’s “Crash & Bernstein”) as time-traveling best friends. The Disney Channel Original Movie — starring the original foursome from the sing-and-dance hit, Ross Lynch (Disney Channel’s “Austin & Ally”), Maia Mitchell (ABC Family’s “The Fosters”), Garrett Clayton and Grace Phipps — sees the cast reprise their roles, but this time, the TV movie is set in the modern-day high school attended by Brady (Lynch) and Mack (Mitchell) with their 1960s silver screen friends Lela (Phipps) and Tanner (Clayton) stuck in it. The entire crew must come up with a plan to get their friends back to their old-fashioned movie world before it’s too late. “Pitch Perfect 2″ actress Chrissie Fit, Jordan Fisher, William Loftis, Kent Boyd, John DeLuca, Mollee Gray, Jessica Keller, Mason Cutler and Raymond Cham Jr. round out the “Teen Beach 2″ cast. Jeffrey Hornaday, who directed and choreographed the original pic, is back for the sequel. Michelle Manning and David Buelow serve as exec producers on the Rain Forest Productions project. The teleplay is by Matt and Billy Eddy, with story by Dan Berendsen and Robert Horn. Christopher Scott also serves as choreographer with Hornaday. The original “Teen Beach Movie” brought in 13.5 million viewers, ranking as the second highest-rated TV movie of all time across cable networks, just behind Disney’s “High School Musical 2.” Following the premiere of “Teen Beach 2″ at 8 p.m., new multicam series “Best Friends Whenever” debuts. The comedy follows two teen best friends Shelby (Taylor) and Cyd (Bender) who gain the power to travel back and forth through time, after a science experiment goes awry — however, they can’t control their powers just yet. Gus Kamp, Ricky Garcia, and identical twins Benjamin and Matthew Royer also star in the series, created by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas (Disney XD’s “Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja”). The co-creators also serve as exec producers, alongside Michael Kaplan (Disney Channel’s “Dog With a Blog”), and Julie Tsutsui (Disney Channel’s “Liv and Maddie”) who serves as a producer. “Best Friends Whenever” hails from It’s a Laugh Productions. As part of the “Teen Beach 2″ and “Best Friends Whenever” premiere day, Disney Channel will welcome the stars of both projects for guest appearances on the network throughout the day. “Teen Beach 2″ is getting the full Mouse House treatment with the soundtrack — including a song by Lynch’s band R5, and another from “Girl Meets World’s” Sabrina Carpenter — coming out ahead of the movie’s premiere on June 23, plus a never-before-seen dance rehearsal DVD being released on June 26. The telepic also will be available for advanced screening to verified users on Disney Channel’s Watch app June 19.