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Since Wizards Beyond Waverly Place‘s premiere on Oct. 29, 2024, fans couldn’t help but notice one spinoff star’s resemblance to an original character from Wizards of Waverly Place.
J-14 spoke to Mimi Gianopulus in an exclusive interview, who plays Justin’s wife Giada Russo in the series. With her red hair and kooky personality, some fans have spotted similarities to Harper Finkle, originally played by Jennifer Stone.
“That’s a very happy accident actually,” Mimi told J-14 of the comparison. “I have red hair, but all the other girls that I auditioned with had, like, dark brown or black hair, so it just was sort of the way the cookie crumbled.”
“But I don’t know, maybe Justin likes redheads,” she joked.
ICYMI, the reboot follows David Henrie’s character Justin as he lives a normal, non-magical life with his wife Giada (Mimi) and sons Roman Russo (Alkaio Thiele) and Milo Russo (Max Matenko). Things pick up when Justin is thrust back into the world of magic after a young wizard (Janice LeAnn Brown) goes to Justin for help to save the Wizarding world. Selena Gomez also reprises her role of Alex Russo in the show, appearing in the very first episode.
“It’s really an honor to be part of something that is so beloved,” Mimi said of the original series. “Because I think for the original fans, this is really a continuation of everything that feels nostalgic that they loved about the first series with new fun characters and magic and crazy special effects.”
She continued, “The writers do a great job of really paying respect to the original show, but also giving everybody something new and fun to look forward to. So I think people are really gonna be excited by it.”
As for what to expect from her character? A bit of a yin to Justin’s yang.
“Giada is kind of a rule breaker,” Mimi said of her character. “You know, she sometimes sides with the kids or is sillier or more playful. And so it’s a really fun [concept], sort of the yin to my yang.”
MIMI GIANOPULOS, JANICE LEANN BROWN Disney+
As for what it was like working with Selena and David, who star as well as executive produced the show, Mimi had nothing but kind words to say about her on-screen husband and sister-in-law.
“David and Selena are both wonderful. David is so lovely, such a wonderful TV husband,” she gushed. “He makes my job so easy. And with Selena, you know, for someone who is Selena, she’s so relatable and cool and down to earth and I just felt like I was hanging out with a friend — so, she’s a wonderful sister-in-law, we have a lot of fun together.”
She continued, “They both are really focused on making the set a joyful place to work and they set that tone as our bosses and as the stars of the original show.”
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English (US) ·