Hannah Montana fans have been left in shock after realising Jason Earles and John Cena are the same age.
Jason soared to fame playing Jackson Stewart in the Disney Channel show, the older brother of Miley Cyrus’ titular character.
In 2010, WWE professional John made a cameo in the fourth and final season – playing himself in a dream sequence with Jackson.
Now, 15 years on from the episode, fans are just figuring out that in real life, Jason and John are the same age – both 43.
In fact, with John born on April 23, 1977 and Jason born on April 26, there are just three days between them.
As an image of the pair posing together went viral on X/Twitter, fans rushed to comment: ‘How are they same age? One is a kid and the other is an adult’;
Hannah Montana fans have been left in shock after it was revealed Jason Earles (left) and John Cena are the same age in this viral image taken on the show in 2010
Others added: ‘Wut? How?’; ‘ Uhhh they look like big bro and lil bro…’; ‘What age is that?’; ‘Wow was they, this a great moment right here I’m miss Disney when it was good’;
‘They are practically twins like Arnold and Danny were in Twins.’; ‘Nah jackson is younger ‘; ‘that’s creepy’.
Despite his fresh face appearance, Jason was 29 when he started playing 16-year-old Jackson in the hit series.
Hannah Montana followed Miley Stewart (Cyrus) as a a young girl who moved from Tennessee to Malibu and is living a secret double life as pop star Hannah Montana.
The ensemble cast included Miley’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus, Emily Osment and Mitchell Musso.
The Disney Channel show ran from 2006 to 2011, with Hannah Montana: The Movie debuting in the midst of the run in 2009.
By the season premiere of Hannah Montana, Jason had a number of big names on his portfolio with minor roles in Malcolm in the Middle, MADtv and American Pie – but his career really took off as the annoying older brother of protagonist Miley.
His Hannah Montana fame helped him appear in other Disney productions – namely Kickin’ It, Dadnapped alongside his co-star Osment, and most recently High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
Jason soared to fame playing Jackson Stewart in the Disney Channel show, the older brother of Miley Cyrus ‘ titular character. In 2010, WWE professional John made a cameo in the show
Now, 15 years on from the episode, fans are just figuring out that in real life, Jason and John are the same age – both 43
Jason and John are both pictured in 2024
In May, Jason reflected on his Hannah Montana stint as he claimed he ‘got f****d’ by his Disney Channel contract.
Speaking on the Night School podcast, he said that while he earned ‘good’ money at the time, the technicalities of his contract meant he didn’t make as much as he should have done through royalties.
He explained: ‘Before being on Hannah, I was an extra, a stand-in and a substitute teacher, and being on Hannah paid significantly more than those jobs.
‘That being said, when Hannah was on, the contract was before SAG and AFTRA merged, so it was an AFTRA basic cable agreement.
‘So, because of that, that is like the worst television contract that you can be under.
‘One of the ways you make your money is through residuals. So if they air the episode a bunch of times, you make money on the back side.
‘For Hannah, because it was that agreement, whatever they pay you above scale, they can credit back in your residuals.
‘Let’s for easy numbers, say that scale as a series regular is $5,000 an episode. And then, because you’re whatever, you sign your deal and they pay you $10,000 an episode.
‘So what happens is, they pay you $10,000, they air the episode, and the first $5,000 of residuals you should have gotten, they keep because they paid you upscale.
‘The double whammy was, at the time, usually a reuse, is that they aired it once, and it counts as one.
‘The after agreement said that if the episode was aired at noon, there was a full 24 hours to air as many times as they wanted, and it counted as one use. So I got f****d.’
Hannah Montana ran from 2006 to 2011 and is one of Disney Channel’s most commercially successful shows (L-R Mitchel Musso, Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley Cyrus, Emily Osment and Jason)
Despite this, Jason said he was still ‘grateful’ for the progression that the series gave him in his career.
He said: ‘All that being said, we did 101 episodes, we did a feature film, that show led to Kickin It, which was another 88 episodes. So on volume alone, and I’m a frugal guy, I saved money, and I’m doing fine.
‘I live in an apartment instead of a house, I feel like I should have generational wealth based on the Hannah success. I don’t.
‘But ‘I’m doing better than a lot of people, I’m doing better than my parents. So in some ways, I could be bitter or I could be grateful. And I choose to be grateful.
‘I hope that I have more opportunities to make up the difference now that the contracts are better.’