By Emily Mitchell
The spotlight. It was Miley’s on Hannah Montana. Now it’s Mitchel Musso’s on Disney XD’s newest sitcom Pair of Kings. Musso, the Hannah alum, along with House of Payne‘s Doc Shaw, become kings of the island Kinkow on the show. (think Princess Diaries) One day, the two are your average fraternal twins from Chicago, and the next, they discover they descend from royalty and must rule the island. “It’s different than sitting at a table discussing about what dress Miley’s gonna wear,” says Musso. “They have us sword fighting with mummies and pirates, and taking over castles and fighting evil mermaids.” In other words, the show is what Musso calls “really boyish.” In addition to the stunts, the set is full of exotic animals, which play a big part of the show. “We’ve had zebras, tons of snakes, exotic birds. Many insects, spiders, lizards, bunnies, coyotes and squirrels. It’s a cool piece of the show,” says Musso.
Aside from being more action-packed, the show is also pushing boundaries with its two main characters: they are fraternal twins of different races. “It was a cool idea to begin with, but when I figured out that it was actually possible, like [a] one in a million chance, that made it even cooler for me. It really can happen.” But how will Disney attempt to explain this issue? According to Musso, they don’t. “They [Doc and Brady] couldn’t think anything about it. They think that they look identical.”
Musso, who also began a music career in 2008, got to create music for the show — something he wasn’t able to do on Hannah Montana. “We jam all the time. We’ve got guitars everywhere, amps everywhere. I’ve already performed twice on the show. Not like a Hannah Montana performance, but I’m sitting in my room and I’m playing my guitar. We wrote and created all the songs,” says Musso. His contributions to the script are also a refreshing change from Hannah. “We improv a lot of the show. That’s the best part. We love the creative control. Usually it’s you say everything word for word, or you’re out. But the people here, they trust it. They know we’re veterans to the game and, at least me and Doc, we’ve been around the block, and we know how these sitcoms work.”
If he sounds cocky, that’s because he is. His experiences on Hannah Montana as well as Phineas and Ferb have plated him in Disney gold. The new opportunity that Disney has presented him with Pair of Kings has given him another outlet to test out his acting chops, and based on this storyline, he’s getting put to the test. “We have this really vicious bug that’s a 60-pound mosquito and it’s called that Waka-Waka, and if it stings you get [a bunch of] different symptoms. You get a big ear, bubble eyes, linguini limbs … a pumpkin head. And of course who gets stung with it? Me.”
