Note: This story contains spoilers from the “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” four-part series finale.
As “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” closes out its 34-episode run, it was imperative for David Henrie, who stars in and executive produces the “Wizards of Waverly Place” spinoff, to close off the Disney series with what he calls the “real magic” within the show: family.
“The Russos have become family to a lot of people out there who have families, but [for] a lot of people who have had broken families we become their family, and I think that’s the power in what makes this show special,” Henrie told TheWrap. “That’s what I hope we leave behind is that family is powerful — family can be there and family can be stable, and I’m excited for people to to take that in here one final time.”
After revealing Billie’s (Janice LeAnn Brown) mother as Selena Gomez’s Alex Russo in the Season 2 finale — before Alex disappears into a portal — there are several unanswered questions about family left for the finale to tackle, including finding Billie’s dad.
It’s all resolved in the four-part finale, which sees the Russos rescue Alex from the portal, while also finding Billie’s dad in Wizcatraz, putting a cap on the show’s three season-run on Disney+.
Henrie noted the extended series finale was the “natural trajectory” the show had been building on, explaining that Billie’s introducing to the family lended itself to a three-season arc. “It’s … also a love letter to the fans to say, ‘Hey, we’re taking care of these characters,’” Henrie said. “I’m sure they’re off on new adventures, but we got them to a place of closure.”
He worked closely with Gomez, not only in her executive producer capacity, but also as a director as she made her directorial debut on the show. “[We talked] what we’re trying to accomplish in the finale, the heart of the show,” Henrie said. “She’s very opinionated. Her opinions are, 99.99% of the time … exactly right. She was wonderful.”
As Henrie, Gomez and the team prepped the finale, they knew they wanted to go all out with the cameos that fans of the original series would recognize, including Jennifer Stone’s Harper Finkle, Alex’s best friend with an everlasting crush on Justin, which played especially well into the spinoff.
“We when we cast Mimi Gianopulos as my wife on the show, none of us connected it immediately, but she looks a lot like Jennifer Stone, right, a lot like Harper,” Henrie recalled. “We started riffing on how we got to get them together one day. We got to put that joke together, and we knew we needed to do that.”
Stone returns alongside Gregg Sulkin, who played Alex’s boyfriend, Mason, in an alternate dimension that Alex battles with as she attempts to return to reality. As the actors reunited in the same roles they played two decades prior, they didn’t miss a beat.
“I remember when I first sat in on the table read … I didn’t know what to expect, and I mean, everyone was just so good,” Henrie said. “They just came in right at the top of their game. There was no rust … there was no awkwardness or shakiness. They just came in and crushed it, and I was just delighted. I was grinning from ear to ear, so happy with how they did.”
The finale also saw Maria Canals-Barrera return as Theresa, though David DeLuise did not return as Jerry. “Everyone had an invitation, but … people are busy. People are doing other things,” Henrie said.
“Wizards” returned to its iconic sub station for the last scene of the finale, which the production team sourced especially for the scene. “It all came back to us — we’re sitting there, and our hair was standing up because we were just like, ‘Wow, we’re back,’” Henrie said. “It’s really weird going back to old places that you have such strong memories of. Selena and I spent countless hours having lunches and dinners in that Waverly Sub Station.”
It was during that scene that Henrie said he “planted” a line about the family wizard competition, which he noted could lead to a movie sequel akin to 2009 Disney Channel original “Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie,” which saw Henrie’s Justin, Gomez’s Alex and Jake T. Austin’s Max compete to be the family wizard.
“I could totally see a movie,” Henrie said. “We got to see how these episodes do, and people got to get excited for them, but I could totally see a movie … there’s a total universe in which we do a movie where you pick the family wizard. Maybe you go to Italy for it or something … I think there is a movie for sure.”
For now, however, Henrie is saying goodbye to Justin, putting a pin in the role and the world he started playing in in 2007. But, twenty years later, he noted he was much better equipped to combat the “natural feelings” that came up with shooting the finale, and this time, he could share those insights with the child actors.
“They were sad and they were happy — there’s tons of emotions all mixed into the ending of this thing. It’s like graduating from college, right?” Henrie said. “As actors, if we place our value in our work or our performance, it’s not a very healthy recipe because they will always come and go.”
Those emotions naturally made their way into the finale, especially as Justin reckons with his new relationship to Billie as she finds her dad. “They let me kind of bring up the emotions, and that was probably my favorite scene to film of the entire 34 episodes that we did,” he said.
As Henrie closes out “Wizards” — for now — he has several projects lined up via his production company, Novo Inspire Studios, including Western flick “Angel and the Badman,” starring Zachary Levi, Neal McDonough and Tommy Lee Jones.
Henrie isn’t leaving the kids and family space, however, as he gears up to launch faith-based children’s book, “Is God Bigger Than a Dragon,” which he wrote alongside his wife and is slated to debut in November.
