It's been more than 12 years since “Wizards of Waverly Place” ended in 2012 after four seasons, but with the reunion of the spinoff “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place,” it seems like no time has passed for stars Selena Gomez and David Henrie.
“I felt like I was home again,” Gomez told me Thursday at the season four premiere of “Only Murders in the Building” in Hollywood. “I’m so happy that I was able to give this gift that I had as a child back to new little kids out there.”
When the original “Wizards” series ended, Gomez never imagined she’d be playing Alex Russo again. But now she’s hoping the new series will be a multi-season series. “We don’t know, but if people like it, we’ll see,” she said.
“Selena, my wife and I spent a lot of time over the years drinking and talking about where the characters were,” David Henrie, who reprises his role as Alex’s brother Justin, told me. “We looked at each other at one point and said, ‘I think we have a show. I think we should talk to Disney about this.’ And that’s what happened. It took years of development to get it exactly where it needed to be.”
“It came from a place of love,” he continued. “The number one thing Selena gets asked about to this day is ‘Wizards.’ It’s a show that means so much to so many people.”
Gomez announced the new series during Disney's May 2024 presentation. Images from the show were released at the same time, showing grown-up versions of Alex and Justin alongside new members of the Russo family.
David Henrie at the Season 4 premiere of “Only Murders In The Building” on Hulu at Paramount Studios on August 22, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Michael Buckner
“It was crazy,” Henry said of working with Gomez again. “It wasn’t mentioned but we were behind the door and we heard ‘Action,’ we looked at each other and we were like, ‘This is crazy.’ It was like a day hadn’t passed in 12 years. We were back where we were.”
Wizards: Beyond Waverly Place follows an adult Justin who has chosen to live a normal life with his family of Giada (Mimi Gianopulos), Roman (Alkaio Thiele) and Milo (Max Matenko). When Alex Bailey (Janice Lynn Brown) comes to his house for help, Justin agrees to train the apprentice wizard while juggling his day-to-day responsibilities and protecting the future of the wizarding world.
Henry also looks forward to the possibility of more seasons: “It's a very fertile world. You can do so much.”
Henry uses his original cane in the spinoff. When the show ended in 2012, the producers gave the canes enclosed in a glass frame as gifts to the cast. “I felt like I was going to break that cane again,” Henry said.
