‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’: Davie Henrie Explains [Spoiler]’s Death, Max’s Absence & More

The final season of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place just dropped on Disney+, and fans are still reminiscing on the nostalgia. Star David Henrie, who plays Justin Russo, broke down the season with us, as well as a few unanswered questions. Warning: This post contains spoilers about Season 3 of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place.

In Season 3 of Wizards Beyond, Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown) tried to locate her mom, Alex Russo (Selena Gomez), after she jumped through a portal at the end of Season 2, while also trying to break her dad, Damien Penwulf (Brandon Micheal Hall), out of Wizcatraz with Justin.

Because she was deemed the “most powerful wizard in the world” and saw how that affected her family, Billie gave up her powers. They then went to her best friend, Winter (Taylor Cora), who multiplied every time she sneezed.

Back home, Justin’s machine located Alex, but her exact location was not known. Winter and Roman (Alkaio Thiele) tried to fix the machine, but wound up breaking it. However, Alex could then communicate with them by sending messages on the microwave screen, telling Winter, Roman, Milo (Max Matenko), and Giada (Mimi Gianopulos) where she was.

Fans got to see Alex stuck in the “dream world,” which was an apartment she shared with her best friend, Harper Finkle (Jennifer Stone). Harper had finished doing laundry and made Alex stay at the apartment because she told her a maintenance man was coming over. However, it was really her ex-boyfriend, Mason Greyback (Gregg Sulkin).

Harper thought Mason was going to propose to Alex. But what he told her was even more shocking — they couldn’t be together because she had to get back to her world and he was dead! An explanation wasn’t given for how he died, but it seemed to wrap up that chapter for fans. After Alex disappeared from the apartment, she went to a void, where she had to fight off Nicodemus Penwulf.

Once the kids got the machine working and Billie got her dad out of jail, Damien and Billie created another portal for Alex to jump through, which led to Justin’s living room. She jumped through it and was reunited with her family. Even her mom, Theresa (Maria Canals-Barrera) was there. But Nicodemus had followed them and trapped them all in a force field. Theresa saved the day by hitting Nicodemus over the head with a lamp.

Together, the Russos used their magic to get rid of Nicodemus. When the evil was taken care of and everyone was reunited, Damian, Alex, and Billie went their separate ways, back to the wizard world.

Henrie breaks down the season for us, including why Max (Jake T. Austin) didn’t make an appearance, Mason’s shocking death, spinoff ideas, and more.

Disney/Eric McCandless

Is this always how you envisioned Wizards Beyond ending? 

David: Yes. I always wanted reconciliation with the family. I always wanted Billie to discover who her father is. This show to me is like the inverse of Wizards. In the original Wizards, you start with a family that’s already tight-knit and who loves and fights, all of the chaos that goes into a family. The family values are the real magic of the Russo family.

So, when you start a new show, it’s like, how do you retell that, but do it in a different way? We kind of started from the opposite end, which was like a family that’s not quite a family, a girl who doesn’t know what family is, and has to rediscover that throughout the arc of the show, as well as myself, my wife, and my kids, struggling with their own struggles and rediscovering what family is, so to us it’s kind of the inverse of the original show, which I liked.

It’s coming now to its culmination, where Billie is learning who her father is, Alex is reunited with her husband, and the spells and issues that were at play in her life, and we bring them all to a beautiful place. There are some real acting moments, some beautiful reconciliation moments, moments where Justin has to realize, “I have to let go of her because her dad’s back in the picture.” There was a lot of emotion packed into this ending.

Since Billie isn’t Justin’s anymore, at the end of the series, Justin mentions the wizard competition. Would she participate in it with Roman and Milo or be in her own separate one?

The thing is, they already started. So, they have already started a wizard competition. Once you start, you can’t just exit the competition. The three of them have already started a competition. We’ve seen the scoreboard. We’ve seen it all. The three of them are competing, so just because we know that she is from another family, they are blood, that means there’s a competition.

There absolutely has to be a competition. She’s in it. Maybe we’ll make a movie about it.

I was going to ask if there were any plans for a spinoff with it. 

I think a movie would be a great way to figure out who is the family wizard.

At the very end, they all wound up back at Waverly Place, which we know in the spinoff that Max owns the franchise of, but he didn’t return for the series. Was Jake T. Austin asked back?

He definitely was. Yeah. He’s busy. He’s got a lot going on in his life. We love him and wish him all the best with everything that he’s got going on in his life.

In the dream world, when Harper met Giada for the first time, it was ironic because they are both mortal redheads who have a crush on Justin. Was that planned? 

It’s so funny. That was a total coincidence. We were meeting with a lot of great, really talented women who could play my wife. We all liked Mimi. She was just the one. She was the total package. After we go, “Okay, it’s her,” one person, I think it was Gary Marsh, turned and said, “You know, David, she kind of looks like Harper, like Jenn Stone.” I was like, “She totally does.” We were like, “At some point, we’ve got to make a joke of this and bring these women together and have a moment,” but it was not a conscious decision in casting.

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Jennifer Stone and Gregg Sulkin Talk 'Wizards Beyond Waverly Place' & Spinoff Ideas

Speaking of the dream world, they kill off Mason. We never find out how he dies. Will that ever be explored?

I think we’ll have to explore it in a movie. It’d be tough because their relationship was so strong. We could’ve been like, they got in a fight, they broke up, and then she married this other dude. I think that might have pissed people off even more. I don’t know. It’s a tough situation, but for us, what was important was bringing closure to that moment.

He was a werewolf. He had been around a long time. It was his moment to pass on. And Alex then found another love and started her family.

I was talking with Jennifer Stone, and she said that she thinks if Mason hadn’t died, fans would have been more mad. 

100 percent. If he’s dead, you’ve got clarity. There’s no doubt.

What was it like having Selena Gomez direct an episode this season?

It was great. She was so good. She really did direct. It wasn’t like phoning it in or having someone else do it. She was there. She was great with blocking and jokes. She had camera ideas and tricks that she was using. She was wonderful. I can’t wait for everyone to see her episode.

She knows me so well that she would come up to me and be like, “David, do your thing more. Do your thing. I know you. You’ve got more in there.” And I’d be like, “Okay. Got it. Great. I’m going to do that.” And then, I’d do that, and she’d be like Good job. When you have a shorthand, it works well.

Are you Team Alex and Damian or Team Alex and Mason?

I’m team both. I think that Mason and Alex had a beautiful relationship. I think that Alex and Damian have a beautiful relationship, and they now have a child, so I’m team both.

What would you say is your favorite memory of working on Wizards? Original and new series. 

That’s so hard. It’s two totally different chapters of my life. The original show, shooting in Puerto Rico, was really fun, which was doubling as Hawaii. That was a blast. We had a great time making that movie. That was crazy fun.

On the new show, I have so many memories with the kids that are very meaningful. These little people, it’s a lot. It’s a lot of pressure. It’s a lot going on. I really enjoyed working through it with them, and trying to create a very healthy place for them to work. They found their stride, and I think they left feeling very loved and very uplifted. No traumatic memories. *laughs*

Final thoughts?

I can’t wait for people to watch it. I hope they enjoy it. I can’t wait to see people’s reactions.

Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, the final season, now streaming, Disney+