‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ Getting Sequel Pilot With Selena Gomez

‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ originally ran on Disney Channel from 2007 to 2012.

January 18, 2024, 2:38pm

WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE – "Three Maxes and a Little Lady" – After Max has the family wizard competition moved up a year (to the following week), Alex and Justin each transform into Max to try and get the date changed back. But when Max arrives at the commissioner's office to also change the date back, he is surprised to find that two of him are already there. In an attempt to transform back into themselves, Alex's and Justin's spells go haywire, creating a magical mistake of epic proportions, in a new episode of "Wizards of Waverly Place," premiering FRIDAY, JANUARY 7 (8:30-9:00 p.m., ET/PT) on Disney Channel. (Photo by Ron Tom/Disney Channel via Getty Images)DAVID DELUISE, DAVID HENRIE, JENNIFER STONE, JAKE T. AUSTIN, SELENA GOMEZ, MARIA CANALS-BARRERA

We’re heading back to Waverly Place. Selena Gomez and David Henrie, who played magical siblings on the original Disney Channel series, will be reuniting for a sequel, Disney announced Thursday. Gomez will appear as a guest star in the pilot while reprising her character Alex Russo, while Henrie will appear as a series regular as his character Justin Russo.

The sequel will pick up after “a mysterious incident at WizTech, where an adult Justin Russo has left his wizard powers behind, opting for a normal, human life with his wife and two sons. But he gets a surprise when a powerful young wizard in need of training shows up at his door… and Justin must embrace his past to ensure the future of the Wizard World,” according to Disney’s official synopsis.

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Also starring in the sequel will be Janice LeAnn Brown (Just Roll With It), who will play Billie, the young wizard mentioned in the synopsis. Other newcomers include Alkaio Thiele (Spidey and His Amazing Friends), who will co-star as Roman Russo, Justin’s eldest son, and Mimi Gianopulos (Rutherford Falls), who plays Justin’s wife, Giada.

Disney Channel broke the news on Instagram with a photo of the pilot script. Henrie hyped fans up in the comment section, writing, “Get ready for the Russo’s to become apart of your family once again, but we’ve grown! 2024, the year [magic] comes back ;)” Gomez also reacted on social media, posting a story about the pilot and writing that she was “so excited” for the sequel. The Only Murders in the Building actress went on to share a throwback photo on her Story with Henrie from their original Disney Channel days, writing simply, “We’re back.”

Henrie had previously revealed that a Wizards of Waverly Place sequel had been “talked” about with Gomez. “Nothing has happened yet, but there’s a lot of talk,” he told Access at the time. “There’s a lot of talk. We all talk about it for fun. Nothing is official. We’ve talked about it Greg, Selena [and] me,” Henrie continued. “Everyone would be down, but it’s just a matter of time I think.”

The original Wizards of Waverly Place aired from 2007 to 2012 on Disney Channel and starred Gomez, Henrie and Jake T. Austin as magical siblings. The popular series launched Gomez’s career and also led to Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie in 2009 and the 2013 special The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex.