‘Hannah Montana’ to Wrap Up After Fourth Season Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Miley Cyrus can’t be the 16-year-old Disney Channel pop princess forever.  According to several reports, it has been decided that her hit series Hannah Montana is expected to end next year.

The star’s father and co-star, Billy Ray Cyrus, told Access Hollywood that the cast is planning to move on with other projects.  They’re still filming season 3, but his daughter requested one more run of the teen comedy show.

“Quite frankly, I give a lot of credit to Miley for taking it to another year,” he said in an interview. “She didn’t want it to just end with whatever was the last episode we did.  She wanted it to build to where there’s a moral to the story, to where it doesn’t just end and go away and that’s it.  She wanted there to be an official ending to Hannah Montana.”

Singing the praises of his daughter, he said that Miley has been doing a lot for someone her age.  Even so, he’ll always be there as her dad and friend when she needs him.  “She’ll figure it all out, step by step, day by day,” he said.

Billy Ray Cyrus went on to discuss that the final 11 half-hour long episodes will be filmed soon, along with a one-hour season finale.  They hope that the remaining installments will hit the screens on 2010.

“We’ll start [shooting] Season 4 sometime around the end of January,” the actor/musician continued.  “We have to be done by the first week of June in the summer of next year.”

However, the decision’s not that final yet.  Knowing how Miley Cyrus is prone to changing her mind about things (like boyfriends), it’s rather likely that another Hannah Montana hit will be on the way after a fourth run of the show.  Even her father isn’t certain of the end.

“Anything is possible in Hollywood,” Billy Ray announced with a laugh.