Matt Cornett: From Disney Breakout to Prime Video Romantic Lead in Every Year After

Matt Cornett is stepping into a new phase of his career with Every Year After, Prime Video’s romantic drama series based on Carley Fortune’s bestselling novel Every Summer After. For many viewers, Cornett is already familiar as E.J. Caswell from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. But with his latest role as Sam Florek, he is moving from Disney ensemble favorite to emotional romantic lead in a story built around first love, memory, heartbreak and second chances.

Premiering on Prime Video on June 10, Every Year After arrives with all eight episodes available at once, giving fans of BookTok romances and binge-worthy streaming dramas a new summer obsession. The series follows Percy Fraser, played by Sadie Soverall, and Sam Florek, played by Cornett, across six past summers and one present weekend. Their story begins in the Canadian lake town of Barry’s Bay, where a childhood friendship slowly deepens into romance before ending in a painful rupture neither character has fully escaped.

For Cornett, the role places him at the center of one of the most recognizable formulas in contemporary romance: the childhood-best-friend-turned-first-love who becomes the person the protagonist never quite forgets. But Every Year After asks more of him than charm. Sam is not just a nostalgic figure from Percy’s past; he is a man grieving his mother, carrying emotional wounds, navigating family tension and trying to understand whether love can survive years of silence.

A New Romantic Chapter for Matt Cornett

In Every Year After, Cornett plays Sam Florek, Percy’s childhood best friend and love interest. The story begins after Percy returns to Barry’s Bay to attend the funeral of Sam’s mother, Sue. Her return forces both characters to confront years of unresolved feelings and the painful secret that has kept them apart.

Sam’s life has changed significantly by the time Percy comes back. He is now a cardiologist mourning the loss of his mother, and his relationship with his older brother Charlie has been strained by distance and by the pressures of caring for Sue while she was sick. Percy’s arrival ahead of the funeral surprises him, but it also reopens a connection that neither of them has fully buried.

That emotional tension is central to Cornett’s role. Sam is not written simply as an idealized romantic lead. He is caught between grief, memory, loyalty and the reality of his present life. His old feelings for Percy resurface at a complicated moment, especially because Sam is now in a new relationship. The series uses that conflict to explore whether first love is a memory people romanticize or a bond that continues shaping them long after it appears to end.

Why Every Year After Matters for His Career

Cornett’s casting in Every Year After represents an important career bridge. Many fans know him from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, where he played E.J., a role that connected him with a younger Disney audience and showcased his musical-theater energy. He also appeared in Zombies 3, further strengthening his presence in youth-focused entertainment.

But Every Year After gives Cornett a different lane. The tone is more adult, the emotional stakes are quieter and the romance relies less on spectacle than on chemistry, restraint and memory. The series is built around longing: what people remember, what they regret and what they still want after years of trying to move on.

That makes Sam Florek a meaningful evolution for Cornett. Instead of playing within the bright, performance-driven world of a Disney franchise, he is now part of a romance adaptation aimed at viewers who expect emotional nuance from beloved book characters. The role asks him to carry not only romantic tension but also grief, family conflict and the weight of a past that still defines the present.

The Story Behind Every Year After

Every Year After is based on Carley Fortune’s 2022 novel Every Summer After, a story that became especially popular among romance readers and BookTok audiences. The adaptation follows Percy Fraser, whose full name is Persephone Fraser, as she returns to Barry’s Bay after years of avoiding the childhood summer retreat that shaped her youth.

There, she reconnects with Sam, the younger Florek brother she once loved. The story moves between six past summers and one present weekend, revealing how Percy and Sam’s relationship changed from friendship to romance before dramatically falling apart.

The present-day storyline is triggered by the death of Sue Florek, Sam and Charlie’s mother. Percy returns for the funeral, and her arrival brings memories flooding back. The emotional structure of the series depends on contrast: the innocence of youth against the complications of adulthood, the warmth of summer memories against the pain of what went wrong and the question of whether closure is possible when love never truly ended.

The eight-episode format allows the show to unfold gradually, alternating between younger versions of the characters and their adult selves. That structure is crucial to how Cornett describes the adaptation’s emotional design.

“I really, really loved the way that they have these parallels of Sam and Percy when they’re kids and when they’re adults, having similar but opposite stories—like the way it’s filmed and the way it kind of cuts back and forth,” Cornett noted. “You see that they’re in a very similar situation but on opposite ends of the spectrum, having opposites conversations.”

He added, “I think that’s something that I love so much—you get to see that, even though they’ve grown up, their life is still inherently at its core the same.”

Those comments point to what makes Sam such a layered role. Cornett is not just playing one version of a romantic hero. He is playing an adult shaped by a younger self the audience also gets to know. The emotional impact depends on whether viewers believe the boy Sam once was still exists inside the man Percy finds when she comes home.

Building Chemistry With Sadie Soverall

A romance series can have the right setting, the right source material and the right production polish, but it cannot work without chemistry between its leads. For Every Year After, Cornett and Sadie Soverall had to make Percy and Sam feel like people with a long, complicated shared history.

Cornett has spoken about bonding with Soverall before filming. “Before our chemistry read, they gave us ten minutes to sit and chat. It was over Zoom, and I instantly felt a connection with her. She was so easy to talk to and so fun,” Matt told Boys by Girls.

That early connection mattered because Percy and Sam’s relationship is built on emotional familiarity. They are not strangers discovering attraction for the first time. They are former best friends whose romantic history is layered with affection, betrayal, grief and unfinished conversation. The actors needed to create the feeling of people who know each other’s rhythms even after years apart.

Soverall also acknowledged the pressure of adapting a beloved book. “We knew the pressure well,” the actress told E! News, “but I think the fact that Carley was so involved and it is very faithful to the book, I think it made it really enjoyable to do and it kind of relieved the pressure.”

Her comments highlight a major factor behind the adaptation: Carley Fortune’s involvement. For book fans, fidelity matters. The presence of the author helped reassure audiences that the series was not simply borrowing the title and premise, but trying to preserve the emotional architecture of the novel.

From E.J. Caswell to Sam Florek

Before Every Year After, Cornett’s best-known role was E.J. Caswell in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. That series gave him a major platform and introduced him to viewers as part of a new generation connected to the legacy of High School Musical. E.J. was ambitious, polished and often charmingly self-aware, a character shaped by performance, high school identity and the pressure to be impressive.

Sam Florek is different. He is quieter, more emotionally guarded and more burdened by adult responsibility. If E.J. belonged to a world of rehearsals, songs and theatrical self-discovery, Sam belongs to a lake-town romance about what remains unsaid.

That contrast is part of what makes Cornett’s transition notable. Actors who break through in teen or music-driven franchises often face the challenge of proving they can carry more grounded adult roles. Every Year After gives Cornett a character who must be romantic without becoming flat, wounded without becoming melodramatic and familiar to book readers without feeling like an imitation of a page.

His earlier credits also include Buster Brooks, Summer of 69, Karma: Death at Latigo Springs and Zombies 3. Together, those projects show a performer gradually moving across genres, from Disney musical worlds to comedy, drama and now streaming romance.

The Cast Around Cornett

While Cornett and Soverall lead the story, Every Year After surrounds them with a cast designed to deepen the emotional world of Barry’s Bay.

Sadie Soverall plays Percy Fraser, the central character whose return drives the story. Before playing Percy, Soverall portrayed Annabel in Saltburn. Her other film credits include Finding Emily, Arcadian, Little Bone Lodge and Rose Plays Julie, while her television work includes The Gathering and Fate: The Winx Saga.

Aurora Perrineau plays Chantal, Percy’s best friend in adulthood. Chantal accompanies Percy back to Barry’s Bay and brings an outside perspective to a place full of buried history. Perrineau has appeared in television shows including When They See Us, Kaos, Westworld and Prodigal Son, as well as films such as Abraham’s Boys, Equals, It Takes Three, Boo! and Truth or Dare.

Abigail Cowen plays Delilah, Percy’s childhood best friend. Cowen previously worked with Soverall on Fate: The Winx Saga, where Cowen played Bloom. Her credits also include Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, The Ritual, Redeeming Love, Witch Hunt and a role in season two of Stranger Things as Hawkins student Vicki.

Joseph Chiu plays Jordie, Sam’s best friend and confidante. His credits include Motorheads, Fear Street: Prom Queen, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and The Miniature Wife.

Michael Bradway plays Charlie Florek, Sam’s older brother. His résumé includes Marked Men, Chicago Fire and Safe House. Charlie plays an important role in Percy’s return, as he is the one who invites her to Sue’s funeral.

Elisha Cuthbert plays Sue Florek, Sam and Charlie’s mother. Cuthbert is widely known for The Girl Next Door, and her television credits include Happy Endings, 24 and The Ranch. She has also appeared in Monster in the Family: The Stacey Kananen Story, House of Wax, Bandit and The Quiet.

Together, the ensemble gives Every Year After the feeling of a community drama rather than a two-person romance. Sam and Percy’s relationship is the central thread, but the story is shaped by family, friendship, grief and the ways a small place can hold years of history.

A Romance Built for the BookTok Era

The arrival of Every Year After comes during a strong period for romance adaptations. Streaming platforms have increasingly turned to bestselling novels, especially those with passionate online readerships, because these stories arrive with built-in audiences and emotional investment.

Every Year After fits neatly into that trend. It has the ingredients that drive online romance fandom: childhood friends, summer nostalgia, a painful separation, a return home, a major secret and the possibility of second-chance love. These are familiar romance elements, but the appeal lies in execution. Viewers want to feel the ache of what Percy and Sam lost and the uncertainty of whether they can repair it.

The fact that all eight episodes premiered at once also makes the show binge-friendly. For romance fans, that matters. A slow-burn story can be more satisfying when audiences are able to move immediately from one emotional reveal to the next.

Cornett’s role is central to that viewing experience. Sam must be compelling enough for viewers to understand why Percy never fully moved on, but complicated enough to make the present-day conflict feel real. The character’s emotional restraint, grief and unresolved love all contribute to the show’s romantic pull.

The Challenge of Playing a Beloved Book Character

Playing a character from a bestselling novel brings a specific kind of pressure. Readers arrive with private versions of the characters already formed in their minds. They know how Sam should feel, how he should look at Percy, how certain scenes should land and which moments must not be mishandled.

Cornett and Soverall approached that pressure with awareness. The adaptation includes changes, including how one major reveal is made, but the creative team has emphasized faithfulness to the book’s emotional core.

That balance is essential. A screen adaptation cannot simply reproduce a novel word for word. It must translate internal emotion into performance, structure and visual storytelling. Cornett’s comments about the show’s use of parallels between childhood and adulthood suggest that the adaptation is especially interested in how time changes people while leaving certain emotional patterns intact.

For Sam, that means the adult version of the character cannot be disconnected from the boy he once was. Viewers need to see continuity between past and present, even when the circumstances have changed. That is where Cornett’s performance becomes important: he must make Sam feel both changed by life and still emotionally recognizable.

What Comes Next for Matt Cornett?

With Every Year After, Matt Cornett gains a role that could introduce him to a wider adult streaming audience. The series places him in a genre with strong fan loyalty, especially among viewers who follow romance books, adaptations and character-driven drama.

Whether Every Year After becomes a long-running franchise or remains a contained first season, Cornett’s role as Sam Florek is likely to become one of his most discussed performances. It gives him a chance to move beyond the identity of a Disney breakout and into the space of romantic leading man.

The series may also strengthen his visibility among casting directors looking for actors who can carry emotionally driven streaming projects. Cornett has already shown that he can work within musical, comedy and youth-entertainment formats. Sam Florek adds another dimension: a grounded romantic role shaped by grief, history and emotional restraint.

Conclusion: Matt Cornett’s Defining Summer Role

Matt Cornett’s turn as Sam Florek in Every Year After arrives at a pivotal moment in his career. Known to many as E.J. from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, he now steps into a more mature and emotionally complex role in one of Prime Video’s major romance adaptations of the summer.

The series gives him a character built around longing, memory and unresolved love. Sam is not merely Percy’s old flame; he is a man carrying the weight of family loss, fractured relationships and a past that refuses to stay buried. For Cornett, that means the role is both a career expansion and a test of emotional depth.

As Every Year After reaches viewers, especially fans of Carley Fortune’s novel, Cornett stands at the center of a story about whether first love can survive time, silence and heartbreak. It is a role designed for summer romance audiences, but it may also mark something more lasting: the moment Matt Cornett becomes known not only as a familiar face from Disney, but as a leading man capable of carrying a sweeping, sentimental and deeply watched love story.