Wizards Beyond Waverly Place: Premiere Date & Disney Alums Directing

This fall, Disney will release a highly-anticipated reboot of a nostalgic childhood series, Wizards of Waverly Place. The new series, created by Todd Greenwald, brings back original series stars David Henrie as Justin Russo and Selena Gomez’s Alex Russo as a guest star. Wizards Beyond Waverly Place catches up with an adult Justin who has given up his life of wizardry for a normal, mortal life with his family Roman (Alkaio Thiele), Milo (Max Matenko), and Giada (Mimi Gianopulos).

However, when Alex brings in a young wizard named Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown) to his home seeking help, Justin realizes he must dust off his magical skills to mentor the wizard-in-training while also juggling his everyday responsibilities—and safeguarding the future of the Wizard World. A teaser was recently shared, giving fans a first look at the beloved wizards reuniting. While it didn’t reveal a whole lot of what’s to come, it did show the updated family lair that was a backdrop to the original series.

Wizards of Waverly Place ran for four seasons, collecting a total of 106 episodes and earning several awards, including a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program in 2012. This isn’t the first childhood favorite series to get the reboot treatment. Over the years, Disney has greenlit Raven’s Home, a spin-off of That’s So Raven, and attempted to get a Lizzie McGuire reboot off the ground for Hulu, but Hillary Duff and Disney were on two different wavelengths. On the film front, a new Freaky Friday based on the early 2000s hit with Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Chad Michael Murray is currently in production.

As announced in a press release, two long-time Disney alums—Raven-Symoné and Danielle Fishel—will return for a new project, but this time behind-the-scenes. They are slated to direct episodes in the first season, though the numbers are currently unknown. Wizards Beyond Waverly Place premieres with its first two episodes on Tuesday, October 29th at 8:00 p.m. ET on Disney Channel. Beginning November 8, episode premieres on Disney Channel move to Fridays at 8:00 p.m. ET, with two episodes weekly. The first eight episodes will also be available on Disney+ and Disney Channel On-Demand starting Wednesday, October 30th.

Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas serve as writers and executive producers, along with executive producers Gary Marsh, Jonas Agin, Gomez and Henrie. Andy Fickman directed and executive-produced the pilot and will direct multiple episodes.

Source: ComicBook.com