Today, AD joins David Henrie to tour the ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’ set. After over a decade, Henrie and Selena Gomez are returning as The Russo’s for a magical new chapter. From recreating the original wizard’s lair to designing Justin Russo’s new home, take an exclusive look at the sets for the highly anticipated ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ reboot.
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place premieres October 29 on Disney Channel and next day on Disney+
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place premieres October 29 on Disney Channel and next day on Disney+
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, AD. What is going on? I am David Henry and I cannot wait to show you around our set.
00:07So let's begin.
00:22We are here in the Wizard's Lair from the original show. This was built exactly to spec
00:29and they even found some of the original furniture from the original show in prop houses all
00:33over LA. The first time that I walked in here, I hadn't been here since I was 21. I'm 35
00:38now. Does that make you feel old? It makes me feel even older. It's kind of like if you
00:42were to go into your childhood bedroom untouched, all these feelings hit you. You don't know
00:46what to make of it.
00:51When you first see this set, it's a massive moment. Justin walks through the mirror and
00:55he walks into the set and it's covered in cobwebs and Selena walks through at the same
01:00time. So it's kind of a pivotal moment early on in the show when we dust this thing off
01:05and we start putting it back to use. The fun part is there's two exits. One exit is a mirror.
01:12The mirror goes to our house and then this door right here goes to the sub shop. The
01:17original sub shop for Wizards of Waverly Place.
01:23This set was so well documented. It was originally designed by Michael Hines. Online, we found
01:29so many images and then once the set dressing started working, it was amazing how many pieces
01:35that they found from the original set.
01:37This is where Justin would teach. So this is all built to spec. And then you have the
01:41Wizard World portal. So it's a big portal that goes off into the Wizard World. Normally
01:45they smoke it up and they make it all mysterious.
01:51And then, you know, we got our, these are like herbs. You got to spice it up a little
01:54bit, but you know, we got our little upside down herb garden and yeah, you know, just
01:59creepy stuff. Who knows what you're doing with that. Camera hole. Very important camera
02:03hole. They put cameras through there and they shoot us. Don't have those in your house.
02:07So probably one of the biggest moments in the show is when Justin gets his wand back.
02:11It's kind of like picking up your lightsaber again. It's huge. And then he taps on a brick.
02:18The brick comes out and then he pulls this out from the wall. Probably my favorite prop.
02:31One of the big things to me when we were designing these sets was what is the couch? The couch
02:37is a staple in every sitcom, right? And in the original Wizards of Waverly Place, if
02:42you remember, there was a very iconic orange couch. So we wanted to do a similar color,
02:47something that paid homage to the original. In the original show, the couch was so great
02:52that Selena and I would frequently take naps on it during lunch. And I have to say this
02:56couch also has that same magic.
03:03We felt putting the mirror next to the bathroom was a really good idea because you, you actually
03:08need to go in and out of this thing. So you need a physical hole to go into. And then
03:14you have your bathroom door exit right here. There's a little bathroom here that we actually
03:20did dress. I don't know if we'll ever use it. We still, we haven't yet, but we have
03:24a bathroom there. And it's really awkward when like you have multiple characters going
03:28through this mirror because you'll have like seven people back there sometimes and it gets
03:32a little, gets a little tight.
03:37Wizards Beyond Waverly Place takes place in Staten Island. And Justin made a strategic
03:42move out of home to Staten Island to become vice principal of a school. Staten Island,
03:48you know, is not too far from Waverly Place where the original show took place. He met
03:51a wonderful woman, settled down, had a couple of kids. I think we have a three bedroom and
03:57little sitting nook here. We can do a little reading or a little changing from coming out
04:03of our backyard there. And color was a big deal. When we were originally designing this,
04:08we wanted to make it feel as elevated as possible. Almost like we were an adult sitcom
04:12just with a little more color. And by the way, you might hear some noises. This is a
04:16working set. People are building things and off doing their jobs. So you might hear some
04:20things. I might have to get quiet at one point if they record.
04:23Yeah, they're in their, you know, mid thirties. So I wanted our set dressing to be from places
04:30like West Elm and CB2 and Flea Markets. My favorite Easter egg, and David didn't know
04:37about it, was the painting that was done of Waverly Place.
04:42So this is a total throwback and I wasn't expecting this. I just showed up on set and
04:46I saw that and it literally made me a little bit emotional, a little bit. Felt my Adam's
04:51apple dip a little bit. This is the sub shop from Wizards of Waverly Place where I've spent
04:56so many, so many hours and years of my life in this very set.
05:04We wanted to show a home that was not only on Staten Island, but also reflected this young
05:11family. We found some architectural precedent of what the homes look like. There's some brick
05:17homes, but we really liked these wood siding and we thought that was a little more familiar,
05:24warm, comfortable, accessible.
05:26So this is my porch, a couple of chairs here for me and the wife when the kids are in bed
05:30to sit out here, watch the sunset, you know, watch the cars go by, watch whatever, you know,
05:37birds chirp, maybe have a water, have a water with my wife and you know, just watch things.
05:45All right. So welcome to the kitchen. The kitchen is another staple in every sitcom
05:54since the beginning of time. So it's a really important one for us to get right. Fun fact,
05:58all the pots and pans are from our place, from the Selena Gomez collection.
06:03So, you know, we take care of our own. We're repping.
06:07But don't you miss it? You know, teaching wizards?
06:11No, I don't even think about it every day.
06:16When they're actually using it as a practical kitchen or they're acting,
06:22you have to turn their bodies towards camera. In that specific kitchen, we already knew like
06:28the age of the house. So we wanted to have some of the old kitchen and then the Russos,
06:33the young family, I wanted to also reflect that. So that island is very modern.
06:38Downstage, I allowed for us to see some of the artifacts so that we understand the family.
06:44We also brought in that little snack station so that the kids, when they walk in,
06:49they're completely looking at camera while they're taking their snacks.
06:53So these are all real appliances and they have stuff in them, but they're not on
06:57because they make noises and whatnot. But we have stuff in them for when we shoot.
07:00If you open up the door, you see there's texture and things. Last week,
07:04we had to do an episode where my character drank this farm fresh milk from the carton
07:08and then shoot it into the sink over there. And we had massive gentleman's bets going on behind
07:14camera with the crew if I would make it or not. It was a long shot. I mean, from here to the sink,
07:18it's a long shot. Let me see if I can make it right now. You ready? Do you think I'm going
07:22to make it in the comment section? Yeah, I like that. That was a yes. Nothing but sink.
07:29That would have been really bad if I missed that. That would have been really bad.
07:36Let's go to the backyard.
07:38So this is our little slice of paradise. We're in Staten Island. Houses are crammed in there.
07:44And this is what we got. We got a nice little garden here, another place for my wife and I
07:48to sit and have a drink of water where we sit right here and enjoy our water and get a little sun,
07:56get a little Staten Island sun. In terms of making an exterior set look believable because it's
08:03actually inside, a lot of it has to do with the aging, the paint job on the walls, the fence,
08:09the floor. This is Staten Island. We're in New York. They get weather. I'm a big fan of live
08:14greens, having trees. We have an amazing greensman. We love Pete. He brings in all the trees and all
08:20the plants. We have a great little planter there that we kind of change out which plants are in
08:25there. We really just try to bring real nature into the state. We don't want it to look like
08:31you're outside even though you're not.
08:41Welcome to school where Justin Russo is principal. We wanted to create something
08:46colorful, something that felt youthful, that felt maybe real and relatable, but something fun and
08:51inviting to the eye. When I first walked on set and it was like day one for me, I remember I go,
08:56oh yeah, where's my locker? And then I went, wait a minute. I'm the principal. I'm old. 35 years
09:03old. I don't have a locker. I have an office. I bet if I open one of these lockers, there'll
09:07be something in it. I don't know, but I'm going to go for it. They're good. Let's see another one.
09:17Wow. They are really good. They are really good. They don't miss a beat. Now there's no way they
09:21did absolutely all of them. Let's see. They did them all. They did them all.
09:31The goal for me with the school's layout was basically give them ins and outs. I've worked
09:36with these executive producers before. They have crazy imaginations and they love for a lot of
09:42shenanigans to happen in the school hallway. So just making sure they had a lot of places for
09:46people to go. So this is the principal's office and it has an actual door that leads into the
09:56school to connect those dots. And then you come on in and you were at the principal's office.
10:01This is Justin's office. This is a big deal right here. It's all this. This is what it's all about.
10:08Principal Russo. It's what it's all about. That's what Justin's been gunning for his whole life.
10:13Oh, wow. Did you feel the power dynamics just change the second I sat down? Everything changed
10:18in his room. He has some pictures that are important to him. Then, of course,
10:21Justin doesn't use his phone for a calculator. He has a calculator. Very, very important. He
10:26also went to university. Don't ask which or what, but he went to university. That one,
10:32the university. It's on the wall. Something cool about sitcom sets is they're very modular. You can
10:38Something cool about sitcom sets is they're very modular. You can erase and start all over
10:43very quickly. So this space is very often used for a classroom. So they'll take everything out
10:49very quickly. They'll bring in classroom stuff. They'll put up a couple boards to hide windows
10:53or doors. And it turns into a whole other classroom in a matter of hours. Boom.
10:58I know I said gargoyle. I meant cat. I sometimes get those words confused.
11:03Me too. Really? No.
11:09We're in the hallway going into our kid's bedroom. So you go up the stairs in the
11:13family room and you come here into the bedrooms. We'll start with my son's bedrooms.
11:18So we got Roman and Milo's beds. We wanted to figure out a way to make it feel like both the
11:24boys' personalities all at once. Roman's bed. He has his own unique set of patterns here.
11:31Shape language is something that I love. And he's very circular, very separate patterns.
11:37And then you have what he would wonder about, which is the sky and the stars and the human
11:42brain. And then you go up to Max. And Max is a little more adventurous, a little more crazy.
11:48And he's got his monster bed with dragons on it. And obviously that looks like cowboys and
11:54aliens. And they're taking a cow. So that's what Max thinks about.
11:59So they will put things right up to the edge of the set. So that way,
12:02the cameras have easy access moving around them and they have a nice foreground element.
12:06So like even where the camera is right now, I'm not sure how wide you are,
12:09but this desk probably feels very much a part of the room, right?
12:13But if you tilt down, you can see it's like right on the edge of the set. TV magic.
12:21Hi, I'm Ginny Sleanne Brown, and I play the role of Billy. And this is our room.
12:27She is very rebellious, mischievous. She's strong. And I think she just really just wants
12:34to have fun all the time. So she's always up for adventure.
12:37In terms of the color palette with one of the newer sets in Billy's bedroom,
12:41I looked a lot at Selena or Alex Russo's bedroom from the original Wizards. I really wanted her
12:48room to feel magic, right? So we did a really bold purple with the decoration, just giving her lots
12:54of like crystals and macrame and like, you know, cool teenage girl things, but also very kind of
12:59wizardy things that I think Alex had in her room as well.
13:03And what about Billy? Is she cool?
13:04I promise. Billy definitely won't say anything about being a wizard.
13:09I'm a wizard.
13:10So actually, Alex dropped her off at, you know, this place. And then Gianna figured,
13:18OK, well, she's living here. I don't want her to just sleep on the couch or whatever.
13:22So she being the lovely person that she is, she decorated this room for Billy.
13:28OK, let's go see the room.
13:34For Billy to have her own room and a home, it means a lot to her because
13:39she's never felt accepted.
13:41Never had my own room before.
13:43Yeah, me neither.
13:45Going on to the Wanda Sykes poster.
13:50So funny story, Gianna can't know there were wizards.
13:54One day she asked, you know, what does Billy like?
13:57You know, because she wanted to decorate her room in the way that she likes.
14:00Justin had to kind of make up something.
14:02And so he was like, oh, she likes her Wanda Sykes.
14:06So that's how this came along.
14:09And I think Billy may have it as motivation because she's always smiling at her when she wakes up.
14:14OK, where's she from?
14:17Oh, she's from Wisconsin.
14:20Wisconsin.
14:23When you're designing for little kids, you know, if you're dressing the walls and you've got all
14:28this beautiful wall hangings, you get more bang for your buck if you hang it right behind their
14:33heads instead of way up there.
14:34In multi-camera sitcoms, all the shots are kind of like middle.
14:38You focus the budget and the money and everything that you want on camera in that space.
14:44This is Billy's wand.
14:46I don't know why I named it Bobby.
14:48I just felt like it would have a really casual name.
14:50I love this wand because I feel like it really shows her mischievous from,
14:53like, the snake and everything.
14:55And then, like, the jewel, like, it's becoming my best friend.
15:03So I'm bringing you to show you what the actors are looking at while they're performing on stage.
15:08A very cool part about sitcoms, since they were invented,
15:11was that they're in front of a live audience.
15:13So the actual laughter that you hear when you're watching a sitcom is people sitting in the stands
15:18watching, laughing, and reacting in the moment.
15:20The sitcom format is the closest thing you'll get to a play in television.
15:25We're looking out this way.
15:28So we're performing for the audience.
15:30So you get the immediate reaction of seeing what a couple hundred people think of your lines.
15:43All right, AD, I am out.
15:45Thank you so much for taking a tour of my set.
15:47It's been a blast, but I got to get back to the wizard world, so...