‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’ Star David Henrie Can’t Wait To Explore Selena Gomez’s Character After Season 2 Reveals She’s Now A Married Mom: “Who Did She Marry?”

Wizards Beyond Waverly Place returned for its sophomore season on Disney+ today. The show, a reboot of the beloved Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place, follows OG star David Henrie‘s Justin Russo as he mentors a young and powerful wizard named Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown), brought to his doorstep by his mischievous younger sister, Alex Russo (Selena Gomez). Like Season 1, which ended with Justin’s mortal children, Roman (Alkaio Thiele) and Milo (Max Matenko), gaining wizard powers, putting the crew right back in the family wizard competition that was central to the original story, Season 2 does not stray away from shocking plot twists.

SPOILER WARNING: Spoilers for Wizards Beyond Waverly Place Season 2 lie ahead. Read at your own risk.

After much speculation from fans, Season 2 confirms the theories that Alex is Billie’s mother, but all was forgotten when she cast a spell to erase everyone’s memory in order to protect the young girl from her evil paternal grandfather. Eagle-eyed fans will also notice that, in the flashback scene between Alex and young Billie, Alex is wearing a wedding ring, an idea courtesy of Henrie’s real-life wife, Maria Cahill.

“I was like, ‘What little things could we add in there?’” Henrie recalled while chatting with Decider. “And [Cahill] goes, ‘What about if she’s wearing a wedding ring?’ And I was like, ‘That’s epic! Fans are going to flip.’”

With so many questions left unanswered, Henrie—who, along with Gomez, is an executive producer on the show—is excited to explore Alex’s backstory in a potential third season. “Who’s her husband? Where is he? Wait, she got married. What’s going on? We allude to this love story that happened back in the day,” Henrie said, noting that Alex wearing a ring “parallels [Gomez’s] life in a fun way” since she just recently tied the knot with Benny Blanco.

When Henrie stopped by our studio earlier this week, he shared more about his hopes for the future of the reboot, what it was like to step into the director’s chair for this season’s Christmas episode, and which former cast members he’d like to invite back to make a cameo. Check out the full story below.

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DECIDER: Wizards Beyond Waverly Place is so much fun, and as someone who grew up watching Wizards of Waverly Place, I can’t get enough of this reboot. What has it been like to reprise your role as Justin Russo for two seasons now?

DAVID HENRIE: It’s full circle and meaningful. My relationship with Selena has always been very personal and just a friendship. We haven’t really done any business. Over the years, we just hung out. We talked. It came about very organically. There was no pressure. We just realized enough time had passed. I’d gotten married in my personal life. I started having children, and the more Selena and I would hang out and she’d hang out with my wife, too, the more we kept talking about the show. It just started to take form and just very organically, it was like, “Why don’t we go talk to Disney about this? Enough time has passed.”

The thing that motivates her and I is the heart of the show. The familial themes and values. The format of the sitcom, we love that. We didn’t want to do some edgy, single cam reprisal of the show. We genuinely wanted to represent the sitcom in a whole new way, hug the original fan, let them know we love them, appreciate them, but invite that person to bring in a new generation as well. That was really important to us. The sitcom’s format is problem and solution. It’s a good thing for the world. There’s a chaotic, comedic, weird thing that happens in the beginning, and then it works out in the end. Those are good messages to have in the world and have in society, especially now. We felt like the timing was right. We did it. And thankfully the response has been wonderful. 

I love the way this show builds a bridge between generations. Selena has said that she continues to do it for her younger sister. Do your kids watch it? What do they think?

Yes. We gotta rip my daughter away from the screen because she really loves watching it. It’s an interesting thing. She’s six, so she’s now put together that I’m an actor, and we’ll be places — the airport or a restaurant — and she’ll go, “Papa, Papa. That girl’s looking at you. I think she wants a picture.” She’ll run up to the girl and go, “Come meet my Papa,” and grab someone and bring them up to me to take a picture. She’s very attentive. She’s understanding these things now, and it’s adorable. I remember the first day she came on set, she walked in and there’s the lights and the glamor, and she looks around and she goes, “Papa, all for me?” I was like, “Oh, boy. Here we go.” 

Do you see her getting into acting in the future?

It’s an interesting topic. It’s a really interesting subject. I’m writing a book on this one day, not today, but I’m gonna write a book on this because kid acting is a thing. It’s a thing. And I don’t know if I would ever want her to be a professional actor, like what I went through as a kid. It’s a grind. And I don’t know if I’d want her to do that. Would I let her act in my stuff casually to have fun? Yes. Will I let her do theater, improv? Yes, yes, yes. For fun. But I don’t know if I want her to go through the grind that I went through. 

I love your friendship with Selena, who just got married! Were you at the wedding? 

Heartbreakingly, I have to tell you, I wasn’t able to go. I’m announcing a project soon. I couldn’t get back for it, but I gave her my best advice. We’ve talked a lot about this over the years. The best advice that I got at my wedding was just take a minute or two with your wife, hold hands, and take in the room, soak in the room, take mental pictures. Just soak it up because there’s so much going on on your wedding day, and you miss stuff. I did that, so I told her, take that moment. Her and my wife talked about dresses and planning and all the good stuff.

Selena isn’t the only OG star who makes an occasional cameo. We’ve also seen Maria Canals-Barrera, and David DeLuise, to name a couple. Is there anyone from the original series you’d like to have back that you haven’t yet? 

I want everyone to come back. I want everyone to come back, but I want them to come back in a way that’s meaningful to the story. So like a plot driven reason or story driven reason. I don’t want us to just be like, “Hey, here’s so-and-so,” and then they go off. I want it to be story driven. I want it to be motivated, I want everyone. 

I think Wizards Beyond Waverly Place in particular really reignited everyone’s love for that era of Disney Channel. Now, we’re seeing Camp Rock 3 is filming. Miley Cyrus has been teasing some sort of 20th anniversary celebration for Hannah Montana. What does it mean to you to be a part of that legacy, and to carry it on for generations that haven’t been as lucky as we were to have that kind of television growing up? 

To me, I think if you look at Wizards and Hannah Montana and Suite Life and Good Luck Charlie … after those shows, distribution changed. We entered a new era of content. Suddenly there’s so many new ways to consume things. And I think it’s coming back around because we’ve had this disruption, and there’s so many different ways to look at things, and content’s gotten so much shorter. But I think it’s coming back around where people want longer form content. People want meaningful stories. The purpose of story is to convey an experience [and] convey deeper truths. I think people are longing for that, yearning for that. And that was our bet with this show, is we can reintroduce this wonderful format that has always worked, in the show that has worked, take those values, bring them forward. I really do feel people need good storytelling in the world right now. They desire it, and they yearn for it. And that’s what we do with our show. We tell nice family stories that have heart and impact. And this season, we took that very seriously. You start the Russos off in this show, the opposite of where we left them. We left them as a united family, and now they’re all kind of fragmented. What better way to represent a family show than by bringing in a new star that’s never had a family and never understood family? It’s just such a wonderful counterweight to the show that people knew, and a new way to tell family stories. It’s worked out really well for us. 

I want to get into some stuff going on this season. People on the internet have been speculating that Alex is Billie’s mom. What can you say about that theory?

I will say you’re asking the right questions. These are questions that we’re very aware of and we’re going to explore very deeply. There are some Easter eggs and some reveals and things that you won’t catch until a second time. I will say we give an answer to that question this season. And there is one Easter egg in particular that gives a huge tell into Alex’s backstory, because everyone’s like, “What happened to Alex from the end of the original show to the beginning of this new show?” Over a decade has passed. There’s a huge little Easter egg. It’s a little prop that’s in the scene. I’m not going to say where it is or if it’s on someone or what it is, but there’s something that, on a second viewing, you see it and you go, “That tells me everything.” It’s very intentionally planted. 

This interview will be coming out after the episodes drop, so are we able to get into that spoiler?

In this scene, we flashback and we learn that Selena is the parent to Billie because we see Billie as a little girl. We brought in a different actress that played little Billie. And you hear that little actress say, “Mommy,” to Selena’s character and we’re outside of Wiz Tech. In the scene, you learn that Selena is protecting little Billie from herself. She does a memory erase spell because they need to distance themselves from one another to protect the girl. So, she drops off at school, erases everyone’s memories, it’s a tearful goodbye moment, everyone’s crying, and then they part ways. Upon second viewing, you’ll see that Selena has a wedding ring on, and that she was married. She wiped her memories, which means she no longer knows that she’s married her husband. There’s something there, too. So now, for this next season, we get to explore, who’s her husband? Where is he? Wait, she got married. What’s going on? So we allude to this love story that happened back in the day. Except now they’ve forgotten each other. So there’s going to be a lot to explore in the third season. Also, who did she marry? Who are we going to cast for that? 

Wow! How did that storyline come to be?

My wife came up with it. I talk to her about everything. You get back at the end of the day, you’re sitting in bed and you talk to your wife about stuff. I was telling her about the scenes coming up, and I was excited about it, the big reveal. We were just thinking of, what juicy stuff could we add in there? Because we’re shooting it the next day. I was like, “What little things could we add in there?” And she goes, “What about if she’s wearing a wedding ring?” And I was like, “That’s epic! Fans are going to flip.” Like, who’s her husband? What happened? So I went in the next morning and I went to the prop department and everyone, and I was like, “We need to get a wedding ring on Selena.” And it was perfect because she’s getting married to Benny. And it parallels her life in a fun way. So it was my wife. 

I love that! The kids in this show do such a great job. I’m sure there is so much they’ve learned from watching you work, but is there anything you’ve learned from them?

To pay more attention. When you’re just doing anything, you don’t assume people are paying attention to you. You’re walking around the set, you’re sitting, you’re on your phone, and then you realize, “Oh, they have been looking at you and they’ve been wanting something from you.” Those are moments where I was like, I need to be very present with the kids because they are kids. They’ve taught me how to be more present, leave my phone in my room. They’ve taught me to be more present. 

It’s probably so interesting for you to have been the kid on set for so long to now be the adult on set.

Yes, it is. The first day I got on set when the school room was built — they have lockers in the school set. Right when I got in the school set, I instantly was looking for my locker. I was like, “What are you doing? You’re a grown man. You’re playing the principal. You have an office.” But I instantly was looking for my locker. It’s like strolling back through your high school or whatever. You go to your locker. It was weird. 

I loved to watch Justin go back to the sandwich shop in the Halloween episode – and reunite with Mantooth! How did that storyline come to be this season? What was your reaction to seeing that script?

Crazy, crazy. Getting to see [Sean Whalen] again … I was a kid doing the show, as a teenager and then into my early 20s, but I remember meeting him because I recognized him and I was like, “Whoa, I’m working with this cool actor that people know. This is awesome.” He was the nicest guy, so getting to work with him again was really special. He was just as supportive and kind as I remember. That was really a full-circle moment for me.

This season, we are going back to what was really the center of the OG show, which was the family wizard competition, now that Milo and Roman have powers. Was it exciting for you to officially step into full Jerry Russo mode as the teacher to three young wizards?

It was very cool to get to fill my dad’s shoes. In a way, you feel older but not. Justin is still Justin. He cares about order, rules, responsibility, and now he gets to teach it. Last season, Justin didn’t embrace his true talents as a wizard. In this season, he’s fully embracing it. So you see him really own a part of his life that he had let go of. So there’s a joy there. And it’s fun.

I was really excited to hear that you’re going to be making your directorial debut this season. How did that come to be? And what was that experience like?

That was so cool for me because I’ve directed a single cam before. I just directed a film called Monster Summer, which is a big movie with Kevin James and Mel Gibson and Lorraine Bracco. I come from doing a single cam feature film to now suddenly there’s four cameras and you don’t really move the cameras like you do in a single cam. You’re not focusing on one specific moment. You’re shooting a moving play. So it’s a totally different skill set. But I’ve done it for so long that I was very familiar with it, and I added little things that I wanted as an actor. I treated everyone in a way that I would want to be treated. For instance, when you’re on set and you just hear, “Cut,” you don’t know why they’re cutting. The video village is far away. As an actor, you’re kind of just waiting for them to come in and tell you if there’s corrections or if you did something wrong. A lot of the time it has nothing to do with you. A lot of the time it’s like, “We have to fix cameras, we have to fix lighting.” So every time I’d cut, I’d yell to the actors why I was cutting to kind of put them at ease. I saw that it had an effect on set. 

But what motivates me the most about directing is the story. In that episode in particular, it’s a wonderful found family story around Christmas. There are a lot of people who don’t have biological families and can feel lonely on Christmas. If you’ve been adopted, there are certain emotions that might arise on Christmas. And this episode in particular speaks directly to that person who might feel lonely on Christmas. There’s a really wonderful, kind ending that I cannot wait for people to see that really excited me as a filmmaker, because I got to add in little single camera things at the end there to make it feel a little more nostalgic and a little more heartfelt and warm. I think it’s a special episode. I’m excited for people to see. It’s the only Christmas episode we’ve ever done. 

I would love to see this show go on for so many more seasons. You’ve already laid the groundwork for where Season 3 could go. Is that something you’re hopeful for as well?

Absolutely, yes. Amen. Selena and I basically, I think from day one, want to do this show as long as we possibly can because the story never gets old. Representing family themes in new ways never gets old. And we’ll do it as long as people keep watching. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Wizards Beyond Waverly Place Season 2 is currently streaming on Disney+.