David Henrie Hints a ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’ Movie Could Take the Russos to Italy

‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place‘ has just closed the book on its 34-episode run, but David Henrie isn’t ready to say goodbye to the Russo family just yet. The Disney+ sequel series, which followed Henrie’s Justin Russo navigating fatherhood and a new generation of wizards, wrapped its story with a four-part finale that resolved several major threads left dangling since the show’s second season.

That finale saw the Russos rescue Selena Gomez’s Alex Russo from a magical portal, while Billie, played by Janice LeAnn Brown, finally tracked down her long-lost father inside Wizcatraz. For a show built around family, closing the loop on those relationships mattered deeply to Henrie, who also serves as an executive producer on the series alongside directing and writing duties throughout its run.

Now, in a new interview, Henrie has revealed exactly where he’d want to take the story next if Disney gives the franchise another chapter. Speaking with Forbes, he described envisioning a future storyline that picks up sometime after the events fans just watched, suggesting the Russos could end up exploring the magical ruins of Italy, according to Forbes.

That Italian setting isn’t coming out of nowhere for the franchise. It draws a direct parallel to 2013’s “The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex,” the Disney Channel original movie that took Gomez’s character and her family to Tuscany, suggesting any potential follow-up film could serve as a spiritual successor to that earlier chapter of the Russos’ story.

Henrie has been consistent across multiple interviews about wanting to continue the story on the big screen rather than through another television season. Speaking separately with TheWrap, he explained that he deliberately planted a line in the finale’s final scene about the family wizard competition, believing it could set up a movie sequel similar in spirit to 2009’s original “Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie.”

That earlier film saw Henrie’s Justin, Gomez’s Alex, and Jake T. Austin’s Max compete against one another to become the family’s official wizard. Henrie has floated the idea that a new movie could revisit that same competition format, this time centered on the next generation of Russos, with Italy potentially serving as the backdrop for that magical showdown.

Beyond the wizard competition concept, Henrie has also pointed to specific unresolved plot threads that a feature film could finally give proper attention. Speaking to TV Insider, he addressed the show’s decision to kill off Mason, Alex’s former love interest played by Gregg Sulkin, explaining that as a werewolf character who had lived a long life, it was simply his time to pass on, allowing Alex to move forward and start a new family.

Henrie told TVLine that conversations about a potential movie have already begun taking shape behind the scenes, saying that in his mind, there’s a movie the team should probably make to properly wrap up the Russos’ story with one more exciting chapter. While nothing has been officially greenlit by Disney, Henrie’s repeated comments across multiple outlets suggest genuine momentum building behind the idea.

With the franchise now spanning nearly two decades since Henrie first started playing Justin Russo in 2007, a potential Italy-set movie would offer longtime fans one more chance to see the Russo family’s magical world expand beyond Waverly Place.

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