How wonderful failures can be, at times. Even though nobody likes them, of course, and they are not always positive, sometimes a stumbling block is the best way forward. Just ask the Jonas Brothers. Quite possibly, if their first album, released in 2006, had not been a complete disaster, they would never have become the band they are today.

After 20 years of successes, breakups, new projects, unexpected triumphs and a few setbacks, as well as very different personal and romantic journeys, the band made up of brothers Kevin (38), Joe (who turned 37 on August 15), and Nick (who will turn 34 in September) seems to have regained its momentum. They have returned for the third installment of Camp Rock, the teen movie that made them famous, launched a podcast, graced magazine covers, and on Sunday entered one of Hollywood’s most exclusive pantheons after being named Disney Legends, alongside Anne Hathaway, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

More than being a purely organic comeback, since they never really went away, this high-profile return by the Jonas Brothers seems more like a campaign to refresh their image, broaden their appeal across generations (their core fans were born in the twilight years of the 1990s and are now growing older), and showcase their strength as a group. It comes after a series of mediocre solo career attempts and after a disappointing 2025 tour during which they were forced to move from stadiums to much smaller venues.

Hence this attempt at a revival under the enduring umbrella of Disney, which has been supporting them for 20 years and is now once again placing them on major red carpets, such as the recent Camp Rock 3 premiere in Los Angeles, where they reunited with Demi Lovato nearly 20 years after the first film. They have also returned to the covers of outlets such as Entertainment Weekly, where the movie’s 2000s-era nostalgia remains a strong selling point, and are now being welcomed into Disney’s own pantheon of Legends.

Unlike the nearly 3,000 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, this distinction, established in 1998 to mark Disney’s 75th anniversary, has been awarded to only 329 people (including this year’s honorees) from the entertainment world with ties to the company. Their induction into this exclusive group reinforces the three brothers, Kevin, Joe, and Nick, as an indelible part of popular culture. There is, in fact, a fourth Jonas sibling, Frankie, but it is the trio who have now secured their place among Disney’s most celebrated figures.

In reality, they would never have made it this far without that failure: their debut album, It’s About Time. Released in August 2006, it sold just 67,000 copies in the United States. Although they were sometimes compared to sibling acts such as Hanson or boy bands like the Backstreet Boys, the record was met with largely poor reviews. As a result, their label, Columbia Records, decided to drop them.

That setback led them to a smaller label, Hollywood Records. Smaller, yes, but owned by Disney, which saw potential in the three teenagers from New Jersey and knew exactly how to capitalize on it. Over the following decade, It’s About Time would become something of a cult album for their generation, with sales growing steadily. More importantly, Disney turned the brothers into some of the defining television stars of the 2000s. And that’s where Camp Rock comes in.

It was in 2007 that the three brothers and Demi Lovato filmed a Disney movie about a music camp. In it, they played members of a band called Connect 3, and the film became a runaway success. A sequel was inevitable and arrived in 2010. In between, the brothers starred in their own television series, Jonas. Their fame skyrocketed.

Soon came the frenzied album signings, relentless promotional tours, and romantic scandals (despite their much-publicized purity rings), all hallmarks of young stars at the height of their popularity. Speaking recently to The Hollywood Reporter at the Los Angeles premiere of Camp Rock 3, Joe Jonas reflected fondly on that period but admitted he did not envy anyone growing up in the spotlight today.

“There’s probably a lot more scrutiny,” he said. “Things happen a lot faster, and with that you also have an opportunity to kind of explain yourself quicker; when we were starting, we didn’t have a lot of options — just kind of hope that the article isn’t about you. Now you can at least go on your TikTok and say, ‘Hey guys, I didn’t say that’ or whatever it is.”

Back then, people were certainly talking about them, but they had few ways to defend themselves. Surprisingly, the eldest brother, Kevin, generated relatively few headlines. The only time he really attracted attention was at the start, when, at age 20, he met his future wife, Danielle, while on vacation in the Bahamas. The two married just two years later, a move that surprised many fans and disappointed others.

The Jonas Brothers were then at the peak of their success, with four albums, television series, documentaries, and even 3D concert films in cinemas. Many predicted that the relationship, begun in their youth, would be short-lived. Instead, nearly two decades later, they are still together, raising their two daughters, Alena and Valentina, and remain something of a rarity in the entertainment world.

Around that time, in 2009, the youngest Jonas brother, Nick, decided to strike out on his own, launching a solo music career with moderate success while also building his experience in television, film and even musical theater, including Hairspray at Los Angeles’s famed Hollywood Bowl. Even so, he never completely severed ties with his brothers, appearing in Camp Rock 2 and occasionally joining the band on stage.

By 2013, however, all three had decided to take a break and follow Nick’s lead, pursuing separate paths. The hiatus lasted just five years, until they realized they were far stronger together than apart. But it was a phase they needed to go through. As Michael Mangini, one of the producers of their debut album, told The Guardian in an interview earlier this month, describing them as both talented and kind, they simply did “what every artist that has a 20-year career has to do: evolve.”

Just as their professional lives were changing, so too were their romantic ones. Nick dated the likes of Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Delta Goodrem before meeting former Miss World and actress Priyanka Chopra at the Met Gala in May 2018. What initially seemed like a whirlwind romance, dismissed by some tabloids as a publicity stunt because of its rapid pace, led to an engagement just two months later and a wedding in India that December. Today, however, it has proved to be a stable and enduring relationship. In 2022, the couple welcomed their first and, so far, only child, a daughter born via surrogate — a practice that is illegal in many countries.

Joe’s solo career looked the most promising of the three. He was the frontman, the most popular of the three, and in 2010 he announced his debut solo album. Yet neither the singles nor the record itself, Fastlife, which sold just 18,000 copies in its first week, made much of an impact. In fact, the album ultimately prompted the brothers to part ways with Hollywood Records, the label that had taken them in during their most difficult period.

After the band’s split, Joe turned to television and even formed a rock band of his own, though that project also enjoyed only modest success. At the time, he was often better known for his relationships with Demi Lovato, Gigi Hadid and even Taylor Swift than for his music. That changed when the Jonas Brothers reunited, particularly with Sucker, their 2019 comeback single and biggest hit to date, which reached No. 1 in several countries and has 1.7 billion streams on Spotify.

It was also during that period that Joe seemed to find stability with British actress Sophie Turner, best known for playing Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones. The pair met in the autumn of 2016 and married in Las Vegas in 2019, before celebrating again that summer with a lavish ceremony at a French château.

But after the birth of their two daughters came a bitter divorce in September 2023. In the months that followed, Turner gradually revealed her discomfort with what she saw as the family dynamics surrounding the Jonas brothers, where the three wives were expected to trail the musicians from city to city. She also suggested that Joe had helped foster a public perception of her as a party girl and a bad mother.

Since then, Joe and his brothers have appeared increasingly focused on this latest chapter of their career: first the 2025 tour marking 20 years in music and now, above all, the third installment of the film franchise that made them stars.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly shortly before the movie’s release, Joe spoke about how Camp Rock had unexpectedly found a new audience. “I did not expect the reaction we have had,” he said. “I knew that the OG fans that grew up with Camp Rock would be thrilled, but it’s this whole new generation of young people that have discovered Camp Rock through Disney+ and even TikTok.”

Perhaps, 20 years on, the time has come for the Jonas Brothers to become the idols for a new generation. But, as always, the three brothers are doing it together.