Sky High

It all begins at a secret school in the clouds like none on earth: Sky High, the first and only high school for kids with super-human powers going through crime-fighting puberty. At Sky High, the student body throw flames with their footballs, study Villainy with their Chemistry and are divided into Heroes and Sidekicks instead of jocks and geeks. It's an out-of-this-world yet completely recognizable place where cool gadgetry, rampant bravery and awe-inspiring magical skills mix it up with parental battles, peer pressure and dating trouble--with explosively fun results. This year's class features some of the best, brightest and most powerfully gifted super-teens ever assembled. And then there's Will Stronghold. When you're the son of the world's most legendary super heroes, The Commander and Jetstream, people expect you to live up to the family name The problem is that Will is starting with no superpowers of his own and, worst of all, instead of joining the ranks of the Hero class, he finds himself relegated to being a Sidekick. Now he must somehow survive his freshman year while dealing with an overbearing gym coach, a bully with super speed and a dangerous rebel with a grudge (and the ability to shoot fire from his hands)--not to mention the usual angst, parental expectations and girl problems that accompany teenage life. But when an evil villain threatens his family, friends and the very sanctity of Sky High, Will must use his newfound superpowers to save the day and prove himself a Hero worthy of the family tradition.

Students

Similar to the Power Rangers series, the students' civilian clothing throughout the film consistently matches particular color schemes, perhaps foreshadowing their future hero costumes.

• Michael Angarano as William "Will" Theodore Stronghold: Will is a freshman at Sky High. His parents are the two most famous superheroes of the day, the Commander and Jetstream. He is anxious at the outset of the film because he has no superpowers yet, which changes when he first develops super-strength and then flight. Near the end of the film when a few other characters battle each other, Will fights with Royal Pain and wins. His clothes are primarily red, white, and blue.
• Danielle Panabaker as Layla Williams: Will and Layla have known each other since first grade, when she told him that she could control (and speak to) plants; they have been best friends ever since. She is a pacifist and a vegan. She also has a crush on Will, which she covered up at the beginning of the film. Layla does not believe in using her plant manipulating power unless the situation demands it (although this seems to conflict with her casual use of her powers at the beginning of the movie, and later-on when she made a flower droop in the Paper Lantern). Her clothes are primarily green and light green. During the final battle she takes on Penny but refuses to use her powers eve n when Penny taunts her because of her pacifist nature; but when Penny hits her, it angers her enough that she invokes her powers and easily defeats Penny by wrapping her up in vines.
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Gwen Grayson (Royal Pain / Sue Tenney): A senior at Sky High; Will has a crush on her. Her true name is Sue Tenny. She is a straight-A student and a technopath, and she shows a mean streak towards Will's friends. However, she is, in fact, the Stronghold family's nemesis the Royal Pain, who was laughed off a generation ago as the prototypical school geek despite her skills as a technopath. 15 years before the movie, during a fight with the Commander and Jetstream, her signature weapon, the Pacifier, malfunctioned and exploded, causing her to revert to a baby. Taken in and re-raised by her own sidekick, Stiches, she creates a new identity as Gwen Grayson, and re-enrolls at Sky High, intent on finally putting her nefarious scheme to create an evil academy into action, as revenge against the Commander and Jetstream. She nearly succeeds, but Will's friends stop her minions and Ron Wilson, Bus Driver stops her sidekick from escaping with all of the babies. She fights Will, and almost wins after she punches him through a window, but ultimately is the loser when he discovers he has the power to fly and she is defeated and subsequently arrested. Her clothes are primarily pink, purple and gray. While wearing her Royal Pain armor, Gwen's voice is heavily distorted into a bass tone (performed by Patrick Warburton) similar to Anakin Skywalker wearing his Darth Vader armor.
• Steven Strait as Warren Peace: Warren is the son of an unnamed superheroine and a supervillain known as Baron Battle (whom the Commander put in prison; Warren therefore initially considered Will his archenemy). Warren is the quintessential rebel and a pyrokinetic. Brooding at school but more bearable outside, from the way he interacted with Will and Layla while off-campus. He eventually becomes good friends with Will and the others. He works at the Paper Lantern Chinese Restaurant, and can somewhat speak in Cantonese. His name is obviously a play on War and Peace. It was his aggression towards Will that accidentally allowed the latter to gain, for the very first time, access over his abilities. The two were later paired to a Save the Citizen after Lash and Speed challenged them (and consented by Boomer), knowing that all hell will break loose if those two were in the same team. Things didn't go quite as expected and Warren and Will became the first to defeat Lash and Speed. Warren fights Speed toward the end of the film and wins. His clothes are primarily black, with hints of red. He may also be indestructable as he was able to take at least two superpowered punches from Will, get knocked into a beam and thrown through several walls and pillars and get back up like it never happened, also exclaiming, "You think I can't take a hit?" If that was the case then he may be the first superpowered teen to exhibit more than one supernatural ability before Will. He was last seen taking the hand of a blond-haired girl who appears to have cryokinetic
• Dee Jay Daniels as Ethan: A Hero Support who is friends with Will, he can melt into a small puddle (which earned him the nickname "Popsicle"). He is often the butt of practical jokes, like getting his head dunked in the toilet by Lash and Speed, although he does fight Lash in the climax and wins. His clothes are primarily orange.
• Kelly Vitz as Magenta/Maj: Will's friend whose ability is to shapeshift into a guinea pig complete with purple highlights/streaks in her fur- she has purple highlights in her hair normally. She does not like to be pushed around. She seems to return Zach's feelings for her towards the end of the movie. Her clothes, as well as her guinea pig form, are primarily purple and black. In the final battle she disables the jammer on the gravity drive in her guinea pig form, saving the school.
• Nicholas Braun as Zach Braun: Will's spacey friend, who has the ability to glow - in the dark. His power actually proved useful when he, Warren, Layla, Magenta, and Ethan made their way though the vents since Warren couldn't use his powers to light up their way without igniting the rest of the vicinity and burn them alive in the process. He has a crush on Magenta. His clothes are primarily white and neon yellow. He has known Will since before the movie.
• Malika and Khadijah Haqq as Penny: Gwen's best friend who can replicate herself and is therefore the entire cheerleading team. She, along with Lash and Speed, eventually were a part of Gwen Grayson/Sue Tenny/Royal Pain's plan. In the latter half of the film, she and Layla fight. At first Penny seems to have the uppers hand, trapping Layla into a corner. But she loses when she angers Layla by hitting her, and Layla responds by making the plants outside a nearby window attack Penny and her doppelgangers, where she informs Layla that Royal Pain sabotaged the school's anit-gravity device, which would cause the school to fall out of the sky. She, along with Royal Pain, Lash, and Speed are sent to the detention center in the end. Her clothes are primarily orange and blue. Throughout the film they resemble cheerleading uniforms.
• Jake Sandvig as Lash: One of the resident bullies at Sky High. He and best friend

  

  Speed love tormenting the sidekicks and anyone else with no apparent powers. His superpower is his elasticity and he is, logically, champion of the game Save the Citizen, along with Speed, until Will and Warren break the records. His clothes consistently feature black and white striped arms. He is defeated by Ethan at the end when Ethan tricks him and then flushes his head down a toilet and it gets stuck there.
• Will Harris as Speed: Lash's best friend, who joins him in his bullying and is always his partner in the game Save the Citizen. He, despite being heavyset, has super-speed. His clothes consistently feature black and white, similar to Lash. It takes both Warren and Ethan to defeat him in the end because his super-speed gives him an advantage, allowing him to dodge Warren's fireballs. He loses when Ethan melts in front of him causing him to slip and go sliding down the hall, out of control. Warren finishes him off by hitting him with a fireball, sending him head first into a wall.

Adults

• Kurt Russell as Steve Stronghold/The Commander: Will's father, Steve Stronghold and his wife, Josie, run the most successful real estate agency in the city of Maxville. As the Commander, he is one of the world's strongest superheroes, displaying super-strength and durability. He is sometimes blinded by his own ego, but when it comes to his family, Steve is always there to support his son. As Steve, he wears glasses to hide his identity (a play on Superman); as the Commander, he wears a red, white, and blue costume. The castle logo on his chest presumably represents a stronghold, in reference to his real name.
• Kelly Preston as Josie Stronghold/Jetstream: Will's mother, Josie Stronghold, and her husband Steve are successful real estate agents. As Jetstream, she can fly and is touted as being an expert in hand-to-hand combat. In addition, she is the classic motherly figure, which Will often finds embarrassing. Just like her husband, she wears glasses as Josie and a red, white, and blue costume as Jetstream. She and her husband run the most successful real estate agency in Maxville.
• Lynda Carter as Principal Powers: The principal of Sky High. She appears to have the power to transform into a comet and back at will, (Her actress comments that "Powers is a comet".) She is a strict, no nonsense teacher who regrettably has to place both Will and Warren in the detention chamber on their first day of Will's freshman year. She also places Royal Pain, Stitches, Lash, Speed, and Penny in the same chamber at the ending of the movie, at which point Powers states "I'm not Wonder Woman, ya know" - a little in-joke to Lynda Carter's role as Wonder Woman in the 1970s). Her primary colors are light blue and white, though she is only seen in her suits and never in her costume. ^[1]
• Bruce Campbell as Coach Boomer/Sonic Boom: The gym teacher at Sky High, also known as Sonic Boom due to his ability to release sonic waves from his vocal cords, which he conveniently uses to bark at any student who doesn't live up to his expectations. His shouts are powerful enough to be heard by the entire school, usually shattering glasses in the process. Principal Powers appears to be the only one completely used to this kind of behavior. He is in charge of Power Placement and supervises "Save the Citizen." He will not hesitate to put his least favorite students in sidekick class. He is mentioned by the Commander as having never "made the big time" as a superhero, which would explain his bad temper. He wears only his gym suit which is dark blue and white.
• Kevin Heffernan as Ron Wilson - Bus Driver : The Sky High bus driver-slash-pilot. Ron is the son of two superheroes, but he does not have any powers. Basically comparable to Hagrid, he develops a sense of camaderie with Will. He feels a great sense of pride in driving the "superheroes of tomorrow" to school. He helps save the day by flying Will to the school when he couldn't fly yet, and knocking out Stitches stopping him from taking off with a busload of babies. At the end of the film, it is stated that he falls into a vat of toxic waste and gains powers (apparently the ability to grow, like Giant-Man) and begins working for the mayor.
• Cloris Leachman as Nurse Spex: A kind and eccentric elderly lady that serves as Sky High's single known nurse. She has the ability of X-ray vision, which she uses to see if Will may possible have any broken bones after Power Placement. She explains to Will that cases like his (where an offspring of two superheroes, or of one superhero and one human, develops no powers whatsoever) are not unheard-of. She tells Will that she does not want to be the one to tell his father that Will has no discovered powers, because he and Will's mom were both such successful and well-known heroes of their time, and still are.
• Jim Rash as Mr. Grayson/Stitches: Royal Pain's bumbling sidekick, and Gwen Grayson/Sue Tenney's "father", who raised her as his own after she turned into a baby. He wears a jester's outfit. A running joke throughout the film was when Royal Pain was ever angered by Stitches, she would grab the sidekick by the throat and choke him, while Stitches would gag out "Uncle, Uncle, Uncle!!" At the climax he attempts to take a bus full of babies away but is knocked out by Ron Wilson: Bus Driver, who says that he (Ron) is the only one qualified to transport super kids.
• Dave Foley as All American Boy/Mr. Boy: The Commander's old Hero Support. He now works as Hero Support teacher at Sky High. Although he takes pride in educating the Hero Support of tomorrow, he always seems depressed that his greatest accomplishment is just being Commander's sidekick (and is shaken to find that the Commander had never mentioned to Will that he had had a sidekick before teaming with Jetstream). Being the former sidekick, he seems to have no extraordinary abilities whatsoever other than enhanced athleticism. He also harbors a long-standing crush on Jetstream.
• Kevin McDonald as Mr. Medulla: The Mad Science teacher, with super brainpower – so much that he is still smarter than the average adult as a baby. This allows him to help the young students to restore himself and the other homecoming attendees to their proper ages. Both McDonald and Foley (above) come from sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall.