Yahoo News Selena Gomez Nearly Starred in 'Wizards of Waverly Place' Spinoff with Costar Jennifer Stone
Stone said that while she's "never asked" Gomez personally about this, she was "told" that an Alex and Harper-focused spinoff was once pitched to the singer
Wizards of Waverly Place fans missed out on seeing Alex and Harper embark on more zany adventures together.
According to series alum Jennifer Stone, leading lady Selena Gomez might have turned down the opportunity to star in a spinoff series. The possible show would've focused on Stone's character Harper Finkle and Gomez's Alex Russo.
"Now I don't know how true this is, but I was told it was pitched to Selena — and I'll have to ask her this because I've actually never asked her this. But I was told that it was pitched to Selena to do a Harper-Alex spinoff," Stone, 30, told fellow series alum David DeLuise on their PodCo podcast, Wizards of Waverly Pod. "She said no because she had a lot of other things going on."
Related: 'Wizards of Waverly Place' Cast: Where Are They Now?
Stone noted to DeLuise, who played Alex's dad Jerry Russo, that this idea was brought up "after" the Disney Channel series concluded its four-season run. However, the Mean Girls 2 star added, "That's what I was told. I don't know how true that is, I don't know if that really happened. I'm not sure Selena even remembers that."
DeLuise, 51, then pointed out that the two onscreen besties essentially had their own spinoff series when the characters moved into their own apartment for the fourth and final season. And to that, Stone suggested they were "setting up for that" to be the case.
"That's why somebody was like, 'Oh, yeah.' They thought about that and approached her before they, like, got into the process of it," she continued. "Like I said, I get it. She has had a million other things going on and she wanted to move forward and honestly, at the time, I wanted to move forward too. So it just didn't make sense."
Stone added, "Looking back, it would have been great. But the thing is is like, where we both were at at that time, we just wanted to explore other things. But they were, from what I was told, trying to set up for the potential of that. Like I said, I don't know how true that was."
Addressing the matter further, Stone said having "some distance" from the character she'd grown to love ultimately allowed her to "appreciate it even more."
"Once you play a character that long, you get to know them so well and they become part of who you are," she explained. "I mean, Harper's still in there. There's certain things where I can snap into her so quickly because she's like a best friend or something."
"I mean, no pun intended, but she is," she concluded. "But there comes a time where it's like, you need some distance to appreciate it even more."
Wizards of Waverly Place ran for four seasons on the Disney Channel between 2007 to 2012. Additionally, the series — which saw the Russo siblings, namely Gomez's Alex, navigating the ups and downs of life as teenage wizards — also had a televised movie and a post-series finale special.
And while Gomez might have turned down the possible Alex-Harper spinoff idea, the Only Murders in the Building actress has since expressed interest in appearing in a reboot. In a June 2022 interview with Extra, the "Calm Down" singer said: "Hands down, I would love that."
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