Jed Elinoff & Scott Thomas on the Magic of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place

Wizards of Waverly Place debuted 17 years ago, becoming a hit and launching Selena Gomez to stardom. The world and its characters are returning 12 years after the original show’s finale in Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, which sees David Henrie reprise his role as Justin Russo, now an adult, whose everyday mortal life is thrown into disarray when Gomez’s Alex Russo brings a wizard-in-training to him for mentoring. The spin-off will debut on Disney Channel on October 29, followed by an eight-episode drop on Disney+ the next day. Writers and executive producers Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas tell TV Kids Weekly about bringing back the iconic Disney IP and tapping into the nostalgia of the original series while introducing new elements for today’s children.

TV KIDS: Wizards of Waverly Place ended about 12 years ago, and a spin-off or sequel has been highly anticipated. Why was now the right time to bring this world and its characters back?
ELINOFF: The minute we sat down with David Henrie and Selena [Gomez], their passion for this show was infectious. You sit with them, and they immediately slip back into their characters and banter. They have this wonderful brotherly-sisterly vibe. When you experience them talk about the show, you go, “We have to do this again. We have to bring this back.” The lessons of the show are important, and the two of them are just so watchable that it’s a fun opportunity.
THOMAS: I also think that, in doing a continuation, for us, it was really exciting to do one where some time has passed, so we’re not just doing another season of the old show. There is an opportunity to find these beloved characters later in life because Selena and David have been living with these characters. When we sat down with them, they were already excited about these conversations. That allowed us to have a lot of fun wondering where Justin is in life now that he’s in his 30s. When we last left him, he was going off to be the headmaster of WizTech. What happened between now and then that will allow us to drop the audience in, raise some questions and have some intrigue?
ELINOFF: How could we subvert what you might have expected from this most likely-to-succeed guy going back into the world so that we can tell a relevant story about somebody getting a second chance?

TV KIDS: Selena and David are credited as executive producers. Tell me about what kind of input they had on their character storylines and the show overall.
ELINOFF: We created this with them. They read everything. We came to them with our take. We had lengthy conversations about it. What do they like? What do they not like? What’s important to them? And what’s important to us?
THOMAS: We started with, “What’s important to both of you?” If we’re going to do this, what important thing are we bringing to this new show? Then, it started to get a little more specific from there. Obviously, for both of them, the big thing is the show’s theme, which is family. It’s about family being there for each other. Then we got to get into the specifics of where Selena thought Alex was, where David thought Justin was, and what they loved about their characters. What were the things that they loved about each other’s characters? Those two characters affected each other so much. You saw how Justin would bring out the more emotional side of Alex, and Alex would bring out the adventurous side of Justin. We wanted to start the series with Justin needing to break out of his shell again. Alex is going to come in, and she will bring Billie, this new young wizard played by the amazing Janice [LeAnn Brown], and shake up Justin’s world in a way that only Alex can.

TV KIDS: Andy Fickman is the director of the pilot and multiple episodes, but Disney icons Raven-Symoné and Danielle Fishel were brought on as guest directors. What led to the decision to have them on board, and what do their directing styles and visions lend to the series? And how does their experience starring in Disney shows add to their ability to direct a show like this?
ELINOFF: We worked with Raven for years, and Danielle also worked with us on Raven’s Home. The fact that they both grew up doing this gives them a unique perspective. Their shared experiences, their understanding of what it feels like to be on the set, feeling the machinery happening around you, and how to inhabit it and be true to yourself throughout all of it are key. They’re also incredibly talented, creative people who bring a point of view to the show.

TV KIDS: How does this new series tap into the nostalgia of the original while also introducing elements to appeal to a new generation of fans?
THOMAS: Walking that line was very important to us. We take both very seriously. We want to pay homage to the original show. We want to have fans come to this show and love seeing Alex and Justin and hopefully be intrigued and excited about where they are in their lives when we meet them now. But it was also very important to us to make a show that could stand on its own two feet. With the pilot, we found an image from an original episode of Wizards where Alex had her head on Justin’s shoulder, and they were having this tender moment, and we showed it to Andy Fickman, and we were like, “We have to capture this.” In the pilot, we have to have a moment. We had written an emotional moment between Justin and Alex, and we were like, “If we just get a tint of that magic, then that’s the Alex-Justin moment that we’re striving for in addition to them just giving each other crap.” So, for us, it was the excitement that if it’s not an overt reference, like Alex showing up on the doorstep, there are little Easter eggs in there. Some spells used in the original show, Billie is now using. There are spells [where] she tries to pull one over on Justin, and he’s like, “You can’t do that; Alex did that to me when I was a teenager.” So, there is this history there that always comes up. But we also wanted to ensure that we had a show that was its own thing. This isn’t just more episodes of the old one. This is a new show with new characters and new kids.

TV KIDS: The world is a different place than it was when the show premiered in 2007. Will you be touching on modern themes that kids today deal with? And what are some of those?
ELINOFF: That’s the fun of having a character who grew up in the wizard world. She’s not necessarily as aware of how certain technology [works]. Some things she knows, some things she doesn’t know. Right out of the gate, we have an episode [addressing] Billie’s understanding of followers and what it means to have followers in a social media environment. There’s a great mix-up that you wouldn’t have done on the original show. We do some fun technology stuff. We’re not pretending like this isn’t a part of our world. Phones are a part of their world. Social media is a part of their world. Connectivity is a part of their world, which creates larger-scale problems. If you’re trying to hide your wizardness and now everyone has a camera on them all the time—it’s all the stuff we experience daily. They also experience it, which makes for a fun and more realistic [story]. It also allows us to play with the magic a little bit more. They do things with magic that approximate what we do with technology, which is fun.
THOMAS: They have a Wizardpedia, who’s a wizard who pops up and can give them facts about anything and wants to give them long-winded explanations about anything they want to look up. Some of the things we’re doing are reactions to how the world is now. The theme of the show is about the importance of family and having people who care about you, caring about those people, and being there for them. We try to show the Russos sitting down and having dinner together. We show them having a game night together. We show them having these conversations with each other and with their parents so that it isn’t just about [how] we’re all isolated by our technology and in our own worlds. We want to remind the audience that these moments are important.

TV KIDS: Obviously, Disney+ was not around in 2007 or throughout the show’s original run. After this series debuts on Disney Channel, eight episodes will be on Disney+. Does that affect how you plan for a series, knowing it will go to streaming immediately?
ELINOFF: It does a little bit. You have to think about the blocks and things like that. You do have to think about it a little bit, but at the end of the day, our job is to make a fun, watchable family sitcom that people connect with, and that should be platform-agnostic. However you experience it, it should be enjoyable regardless of how you’re seeing it or where you’re seeing it.
THOMAS: I think that’s the beauty of Wizards—there’s already a heightened aspect to the show that lends itself a little more to streaming than maybe some other sitcoms would. There’s special effects, there’s magic, there’s adventure, there’s monsters, there’s a mythology arc. So, it’s stuff we already would have done on the channel anyway. The only thing that changes is you go, “OK, if we’re dropping eight, what’s the end of the eighth one? Is it a cliffhanger?” Those questions exist, but how we approach a series doesn’t change.

TV KIDS: Lastly, the theme song of the original, “Everything Is Not As It Seems,” is just as iconic as the series itself. Selena performed that. Can you share anything about the theme song for this new series?
ELINOFF: You know what? I think you’re just going to have to watch and see. [Laughs]