Wizards Beyond Waverly Place updates the Emmy winning hit comedy series starring Selena Gomez (Only Murders In The Building), David Henrie (How I Met Your Mother) and Janice LeAnn Brown (Montross: Blood Rules) with Disney stars Raven-Symoné (That’s SO Raven) and Danielle Fishel (Girl Meets World) tapped to direct. Gomez will also produce. The October premier is just in time for Halloween! A first look video is here:
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place follows an adult Justin Russo (Henrie ), who has chosen to lead a normal, mortal life with his family, Giada, Roman and Milo. When Justin’s sister Alex brings Billie to his home seeking help, Justin realizes he must dust off his magical skills to mentor the wizard-in-training.
“Selena and I took this very seriously,” Henrie said about the upcoming project. “We wanted a show that the original fan would love, would embrace, that would feel like an extension of the original show.”
The original Wizards was the Disney Channels highest rated show at the time, pre-streaming era. It also spawned specials and a movie, plus 2 video games, and talks of a sequel have been active since 2017. A pilot for Wizards Beyond Waverly Place was ordered in January of this year, and by March it was ordered to series. This is impressive, since Disney, like much of the industry, is generally cutting back on new shows.
Selena Gomez has had a huge career since Wizards, with 3 no.1 pop albums, staring in multiple films including the Hotel Transylvania franchise, and the multi-award winning series with Steve Martin and Martin Short, Only Murders In The Building.
The first two episodes will be on Disney Channel on Oct. 29, followed by all eight episodes dropping on Disney+ on Oct. 30. Disney Channel will show them weekly Fridays at 8 p.m. ET. Wizards Beyond Waverly Place looks like fun family entertainment from Disney.
David Raiklen wrote, directed and scored his first film at age 9. He began studying keyboard and composing at age 5. He attended, then taught at UCLA, USC and CalArts. Among his teachers are John Williams and Mel Powel.
He has worked for Fox, Disney and Sprint. David has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2004 American Music Center Award. Dr. Raiklen has composed music and sound design for theater (Death and the Maiden), dance (Russian Ballet), television (Sing Me a Story), cell phone (Spacey Movie), museums (Museum of Tolerance), concert (Violin Sonata ), and film (Appalachian Trail).
His compositions have been performed at the Hollywood Bowl and the first Disney Hall. David Raiken is also host of a successful radio program, Classical Fan Club.
