Selena Gomez to Make Directorial Debut With Final Season of ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’

Selena Gomez will soon be able to add “director” to her growing résumé.

Disney has announced that Wizards Beyond Waverly Place will be ending with its third season this summer, and Gomez will make her directorial debut with the premiere episode.

The Wizards of Waverly Place continuation, which premiered in 2024 on Disney+ and Disney Channel, will air a four-part event this summer to wrap up the series. Filming begins next week. In addition to her directorial debut, Gomez will once again reprise her beloved Wizards role as Alex Russo in multiple episodes.

In the four-part event, “Billie, still reeling from losing Alex at the end of Season 2, discovers that the only way to rescue her mother is to reunite with her long-lost father. As her family bands together to find Alex, Billie realizes that their combined power is the only way the Russos can defeat the evil plaguing them.”

The series stars David Henrie, Janice LeAnn Brown, Alkaio Thiele, Max Matenko, Taylor Cora, and Mimi Gianopulos. Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas serve as writers and executive producers, along with executive producers Gary Marsh, Jonas Agin, Rick Williams, Gomez and Henrie.

Throughout her career, Selena Gomez has branched out into many different areas. The actress and singer, 33, is also a songwriter, businesswoman, and producer. In 2020, she launched her own makeup and cosmetics brand, Rare Beauty, which was valued at over $2 billion in 2024.

Gomez serves as an executive producer on the Emmy-nominated Hulu hit Only Murders in the Building, which is entering its sixth season, and has additional EP credits on her cooking shows Selena + Restaurant, Selena + Chef: Home for the Holidays, and Selena + Chef, as well as Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania, The Broken Hearts Gallery, This Is the Year, 13 Reasons Why, Living Undocumented, and The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex.

Wizards of Waverly Place was created by Todd J. Greenwald and ran for four seasons from 2007 to 2012, with a DCOM in 2009 and a reunion special in 2013. Along with Gomez and Henrie, the show starred Jake T. Austin, Jennifer Stone, Maria Canals-Barrera, and David DeLuise. Both Canals-Barrera and DeLuise have guest starred on Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, as well as Bill Chott and Sean Whalen, who both appeared in the original.

With filming starting soon on the third and final season of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, more information on when it will premiere and when to expect Gomez’s directorial debut should be revealed soon. For now, the first two seasons, as well as all four seasons of WOWP, The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex, and Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, are all on Disney+. The four-part event premieres this summer on Disney+, Disney Channel, and Disney Channel On Demand.