Wizards Beyond Waverly Place has premiered on Disney Channel!
The first nine episodes of the new continuation of Wizards of Waverly Place are currently available to stream on Disney+, but fans have been wondering where the rest of the Russos are.
David Henrie stars in the new show as Justin Russo, while Selena Gomez and David DeLuise both make singular appearances as Alex and Jerry, respectively.
While Jake T Austin previously said he was going to be on the show, returning as Max Russo, and Maria Canals-Barrera, aka Theresa Russo, reunited with the Davids and Selena, neither were in any of the first episodes.
In a new interview, showrunners Scott Thomas and Jed Elinoff open up about why everyone hasn’t been on the show yet and if they ever will be.
Keep reading to find out more…
“The absolute hope is that throughout this season and into future seasons, we can bring back everyone at some point and have those great fan moments for fans of the old show. It’s a little bit hard in the first season, because we’re trying to tell stories about the new kids, and we’re trying to forward their stories and establish them as the leads of the show. So we have to be kind of strategic about it,” Scott told THR.
“We have to sort of pepper in, like, ‘Who are we bringing back? When? What’s the episode? Does it make sense to bring them back from a story sense? Are we just doing fan service, or is this really like the story that we need to tell in the limited amount of episodes we have this season?’” he continued.
Jed added, “Doing it is great, but if it feels false, nobody’s going to appreciate it. So it is, like Scott said, a tightrope between between the original fans and trying to create the new show.”
“But the hope is to have everyone pop in at some point,” Scott concluded.
Maria was one of several past Wizards stars/recurring guest stars who was in attendance at the premiere this week!
In case you missed it, get to know the young stars of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place and check out our exclusive interviews over on