What To Know
- Jennifer Stone and Gregg Sulkin return as Harper and Mason in the nostalgic four-part finale of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, premiering August 4 on Disney Channel and August 5 on Disney+.
- Both actors expressed deep gratitude and emotional connection to the series, sharing favorite memories and the special bond among the cast and crew.
- Stone and Sulkin are open to future spinoffs, with Stone envisioning Harper as a multifaceted character and Sulkin eager to reprise Mason if fans remain interested.
For fans of the original Wizards of Waverly Place, the final season of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place cooks up so much nostalgia. Jennifer Stone and Gregg Sulkin return to the show as Harper Finkle and Mason Greyback in the final four-part event.
In Season 3, Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown) is still trying everything she can to find her mother, Alex (Selena Gomez), who jumped through a portal at the end of Season 2. She must work with her family to save her while also trying to break her dad, Damian Penwolf (Brandon Micheal Hall), out of the wizard prison, so she can reunite her family.
In between all of that, Harper, Alex’s best friend, and Mason, Alex’s werewolf ex-boyfriend, return and appear in Alex’s apartment. And no, that Season 1 set visit from Sulkin was not a hint towards his appearance. He was just visiting friends and supporting the show. Find out how they tie into the story when the four-part event begins on August 4 at 8/7c on Disney Channel. The episodes all drop on Disney+ the next day.
TV Insider caught up with Stone and Sulkin to talk about returning and their favorite moments on set. Plus, would they return for another spinoff?
“Coming back was very special for me. I moved to the United States when I was 17 years old to start my journey on Wizards, so to come back many years later was very surreal and very special. The show means so much to me. Loved every second of it,” Sulkin said.
Stone felt the same way. “It still blows my mind, to be honest, that I get to be a part of something that still resonates with people,” she told us. “I was a theater kid from Texas. I thought I was going to do theater and indie movies my whole career. There are so many times that people come up to me, and my brain’s just not in that headspace because I joke that I have my acting brain and my nursing brain. So, especially when I’m at the hospital working, and someone comes up to me about Wizards or Harper, it means so much to me, but it also catches me off guard a little bit. It’s just something I never expected and has been such a beautiful blessing.” (Stone got her nursing degree in December 2019 and worked through the pandemic. Wizards Beyond is her first acting role since then.)
As for their favorite memories, Sulkin shared that getting to share the screen with Gomez the first time was something he’ll never forget. “I just remember being, on the day, quite nervous, and she was so delightful and warm, the way Selena is. Straightaway, we had a great chemistry that started then and lasted many, many, many years later into this scene for the spinoff,” he said.
The episode that David Henrie, who plays Justin Russo, wrote, based around Mason, was another highlight. “David knew me so well that he was able to write to my/Mason’s strengths from a comedic point of view,” he explained. “When you work with friends, you never feel like you’re working, and I feel that’s what it feels like when you’re on the Wizards set.”
Stone loved the in-between moments the most. “We were such a close-knit family, the cast, the crew, the writers. I still talk to so many people involved with that show. Before the live audience taping, we would say a little prayer and have a check-in with each other. There’s a lot of inside jokes written in Sharpie on some swingset somewhere. Also, the talks between rehearsals. They would play music, so we would dance from scene to scene,” she shared.
With the sequel, “it was sliding back into that,” Stone continued. “We don’t have a ton of our old crew and writers, but just seeing them, and getting to touch base with how much life has happened in between with somebody that I hold with a special place within my heart, it took me right back to that warm feeling, but with the person that I am now. And then a ton of crying. The waterproof mascara I required was out of control.”
Both actors said they would love to return for another possible spinoff, although nothing is planned yet. Stone thinks that exploring what Harper is up to during Wizards Beyond would be really fun. “I love hearing people’s thought process on this because some people have the Rachel Dratch future Harper episode in mind. They’re like, ‘No! That’s canon! That’s how it has to be.’ She’s writing young adult novels about the Russo kids,” she said.
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“But, I kind of love that she’s like me, like multi-faceted, where I act and do nursing. I kind of like the idea that she is writing those books on the side, while she has her own fashion line. She teaches fashion at an art school, or is even an art teacher of some sort. She has to be doing something with clothes or design, but I like that she is also a writer on the side,” Stone added.
If fans still love Mason, Sulkin would love to revisit the character. “I think any chance for me to step back into the shoes of Mason is an opportunity that I would love to fulfill just because that character was so loved by me, but it was so loved by many as well. It really is a special position to be in. I think any opportunity, if the fans still like Mason this time around, and they continue to like him, then it is something that when the time is right and when the stars align, like they did with me returning — because there are many factors into any actor rejoining a show — we’ll see what the future holds. But it’s definitely something I would never say never to basically. We all love each other on this show,” he said.
“You never know what’s going to happen,” Sulkin teased. “In 10 years time, maybe there’s a prequel, maybe there’s a spinoff, and fans get to see more of Mason.”
Fans of Sulkin will get to see him in a few upcoming projects. He will be in the upcoming season of The Forsytes, as well as the film The Cruelest, which will hit theaters later this year. “I have another announcement coming, for something I have been working on and a path that I’ve always wanted to take as I’ve gained experience in this field,” he shared.
Stone is busy nursing and working. She and David DeLuise ran the Wizards of Waverly Pod Podcast, but she said it is on an indefinite hiatus right now. “We had some stuff with the producing partners fall. Me and DeLuise would take over, but honestly, we’re just really busy!” she admitted.
Plus, both Sulkin and Stone would love to appear in an episode of Only Murders in the Building with Gomez. They were both in London visiting her on set recently.
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, Season 3, August 4, 8/7c, Disney Channel (August 5, Disney+)
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
