{"id":28600,"date":"2024-10-28T07:58:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T11:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wizards-beyond-waverly-places-writers-jed-elinoff-scott-thomas\/"},"modified":"2024-10-28T12:41:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T16:41:22","slug":"wizards-beyond-waverly-places-writers-jed-elinoff-scott-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wizards-beyond-waverly-places-writers-jed-elinoff-scott-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Wizards Beyond Waverly Place\u2019s Writers Jed Elinoff & Scott Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wizards of Waverly Place<\/em>\u00a0debuted 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\u2019s finale in\u00a0Wizards Beyond Waverly Place<\/em>, which sees David Henrie reprise his role as Justin Russo, now an adult, whose everyday mortal life is thrown into disarray when Gomez\u2019s 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\u00a0TV Kids Weekly<\/em>\u00a0about bringing back the iconic Disney IP and tapping into the nostalgia of the original series while introducing new elements for today\u2019s children.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0Wizards of Waverly Place<\/em>\u00a0ended 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?
\nELINOFF:<\/strong>\u00a0The 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, \u201cWe have to do this again. We have to bring this back.\u201d The lessons of the show are important, and the two of them are just so watchable that it\u2019s a fun opportunity.
\nTHOMAS:<\/strong>\u00a0I also think that, in doing a continuation, for us, it was really exciting to do one where some time has passed, so we\u2019re 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\u2019s 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?
\nELINOFF:<\/strong>\u00a0How 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?<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0Selena and David are credited as executive producers. Tell me about what kind of input they had on their character storylines and the show overall.
\nELINOFF:<\/strong>\u00a0We 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\u2019s important to them? And what\u2019s important to us?
\nTHOMAS:<\/strong>\u00a0We started with, \u201cWhat\u2019s important to both of you?\u201d If we\u2019re 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\u2019s theme, which is family. It\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s world in a way that only Alex can.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0Andy Fickman is the director of the pilot and multiple episodes, but Disney icons Raven-Symon\u00e9 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?
\nELINOFF:<\/strong>\u00a0We worked with Raven for years, and Danielle also worked with us on\u00a0Raven\u2019s Home<\/em>. 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\u2019re also incredibly talented, creative people who bring a point of view to the show.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0How does this new series tap into the nostalgia of the original while also introducing elements to appeal to a new generation of fans?
\nTHOMAS:<\/strong>\u00a0Walking 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\u00a0Wizards<\/em>\u00a0where Alex had her head on Justin\u2019s shoulder, and they were having this tender moment, and we showed it to Andy Fickman, and we were like, \u201cWe have to capture this.\u201d In the pilot, we have to have a moment. We had written an emotional moment between Justin and Alex, and we were like, \u201cIf we just get a tint of that magic, then that\u2019s the Alex-Justin moment that we\u2019re striving for in addition to them just giving each other crap.\u201d So, for us, it was the excitement that if it\u2019s 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\u2019s like, \u201cYou can\u2019t do that; Alex did that to me when I was a teenager.\u201d 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\u2019t just more episodes of the old one. This is a new show with new characters and new kids.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0The 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?
\nELINOFF:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s the fun of having a character who grew up in the wizard world. She\u2019s not necessarily as aware of how certain technology [works]. Some things she knows, some things she doesn\u2019t know. Right out of the gate, we have an episode [addressing] Billie\u2019s understanding of followers and what it means to have followers in a social media environment. There\u2019s a great mix-up that you wouldn\u2019t have done on the original show. We do some fun technology stuff. We\u2019re not pretending like this isn\u2019t 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\u2019re trying to hide your wizardness and now everyone has a camera on them all the time\u2014it\u2019s 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.
\nTHOMAS:<\/strong>\u00a0They have a Wizardpedia, who\u2019s 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\u2019re 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\u2019t just about [how] we\u2019re all isolated by our technology and in our own worlds. We want to remind the audience that these moments are important.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0Obviously, Disney+ was not around in 2007 or throughout the show\u2019s 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?
\nELINOFF:<\/strong>\u00a0It 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\u2019re seeing it or where you\u2019re seeing it.
\nTHOMAS:<\/strong>\u00a0I think that\u2019s the beauty of\u00a0Wizards<\/em>\u2014there\u2019s already a heightened aspect to the show that lends itself a little more to streaming than maybe some other sitcoms would. There\u2019s special effects, there\u2019s magic, there\u2019s adventure, there\u2019s monsters, there\u2019s a mythology arc. So, it\u2019s stuff we already would have done on the channel anyway. The only thing that changes is you go, \u201cOK, if we\u2019re dropping eight, what\u2019s the end of the eighth one? Is it a cliffhanger?\u201d Those questions exist, but how we approach a series doesn\u2019t change.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0Lastly, the theme song of the original, \u201cEverything Is Not As It Seems,\u201d is just as iconic as the series itself. Selena performed that. Can you share anything about the theme song for this new series?
\nELINOFF:<\/strong>\u00a0You know what? I think you\u2019re just going to have to watch and see. [Laughs<\/em>]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The writers and executive producers discuss bringing back the iconic Disney IP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":28601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21],"tags":[10178,10179,9919],"class_list":["post-28600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-jed-elinoff","tag-scott-thomas","tag-wizards-beyond-waverly-place","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nWizards Beyond Waverly Place\u2019s Writers Jed Elinoff & Scott Thomas - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wizards-beyond-waverly-places-writers-jed-elinoff-scott-thomas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wizards Beyond Waverly Place\u2019s Writers Jed Elinoff & Scott Thomas - TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The writers and executive producers discuss bringing back the iconic Disney IP.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wizards-beyond-waverly-places-writers-jed-elinoff-scott-thomas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-28T11:58:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-28T16:41:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/10\/173384_0041_R.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wizards-beyond-waverly-places-writers-jed-elinoff-scott-thomas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wizards-beyond-waverly-places-writers-jed-elinoff-scott-thomas\/\",\"name\":\"Wizards Beyond Waverly Place\u2019s Writers Jed Elinoff & Scott Thomas - TVKIDS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-28T11:58:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-28T16:41:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wizards-beyond-waverly-places-writers-jed-elinoff-scott-thomas\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wizards-beyond-waverly-places-writers-jed-elinoff-scott-thomas\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wizards-beyond-waverly-places-writers-jed-elinoff-scott-thomas\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wizards Beyond Waverly Place\u2019s Writers Jed Elinoff & Scott Thomas\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\",\"name\":\"TVKIDS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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