BY ISABELLA BEELER

This week Wizards Beyond Waverly Place is premiering on Disney Channel and Disney +. It is a spinoff series to Wizards of Waverly Place, which ran from 2007-2010. This series also had two movies. Many fans are excited for this spinoff and to see the Russo’s on screen again. People have commented on Instagram that the trailer looks good and better than the recent Disney channel shows that have been released.

The original series, Wizards of Waverly Place is about Alex Russo and her brothers Justin and Max training to become wizards. Their dad, Jerry, is a wizard, but gave up his power when he married their mortal mom. Only one member from the family can keep their powers. A wizard competition decides which family member earns that right. The show shows them training and doing everyday life like school, dating, and working at a sub sandwich station. They get into messes with magic and work as a family to fix them. In the end, Alex wins the wizard competition and becomes the family wizard, but that’s not all. Justin gets to keep his powers and becomes headmaster of WizTech. It is a great show.

I watched the first two episodes of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place. Episode 1 is called “Everything is Not What it Seems”. It takes place on Justin’s birthday. We find out that Justin got fired from teaching at WizTech, and was embarrassed. He wanted to keep his past behind him, so he didn’t tell his family that he and Alex are wizards. Alex shows up and brings a mischievous and powerful wizard-in-training named Billie. The Wizard Council thinks Billie is dangerous and wants to take away her powers. All of her teachers have given up on her. Alex hopes that Justin will come back to teaching and help Billie. It takes him a while to decide, but eventually he decides to help Billie. He believes in her and that makes her happy. At the end we see the exact wizards layer from the original. We also find out that Billie is the only one that can save the world in the future.

Episode 2 is called “Mortal Vibes Only”. It is about Justin’s family finding out that he is a wizard. Billie accidentally tells Justin’s sons, Roman and Milo, that he is a wizard. Billie uses magic to try to erase their memories, but it just makes it worse. Justin finds out and helps fix it, and his wife, Mimi, sees and finds out, too. Justin is upset that Billie used magic when she is not supposed to, so Billie tries to run away. She is used to being kicked out when she messes up. Justin teaches her that in the Russo house, you don’t get kicked out when you mess up, you learn. There is also a short clip at the end that foreshadows future episodes. A green thing smells that a young wizard was in the wizard world and wants to destroy stuff.

I’m excited to watch more episodes. They are on Disney + up to episode 9. I think that this is one of “New Disney’s” good shows. Great for Wizards of Waverly Place fans. Even if you haven’t watched Wizards of Waverly Place, you would probably enjoy it, too. It is different from the original, but it is funny and brings the Russo family back to our screens with a new story.

Overall: 8/10