NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 13: Janice LeAnn Brown attends the 2025 Disney Upfront at Javits Center on May 13, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by John Nacion/WireImage)
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Wizards Beyond Waverly Place star Janice LeAnn Brown is very young, very talented and very much a blast to talk to.
When we chat over Zoom, the four part finale to the Wizards of Waverly Place sequel has still not come out, but it’s been around five months since they wrapped filming.
“Thank goodness I guess we all weren’t mumbling and everything, so I didn’t have to pick up on any ADR recently,” she laughs.
It’s been more than two years since Brown joined the show, all of 13 years old, as the lead character Billie, a rebellious young wizard whom Alex Russo (Selena Gomez) unexpectedly drops off with her brother Justin’s (David Henrie) family.
Now 15, she tells me all she can remember from the last day of filming is crying.
“It just felt like we were going to like a second home, to be honest,” she says of the atmosphere on set. “We fought like siblings. We laughed like siblings. I think I’m going to place this as the best thing that I will ever work on, you know, family wise. I really did, and do love them.”
“I felt accomplished,” continues Brown. “I think we all did, you know, ’cause you know in the beginning there was, some backlash,” she remembers, referring in part to fan backlash to her casting as a mixed-race Russo.
WIZARDS BEYOND WAVERLY PLACE SEASON 1 – ØEverything is Not What It SeemsÆ (Disney/Eric McCandless) ALKAIO THIELE, JANICE LEANN BROWN, SELENA GOMEZ, MAX MATENKO, MIMI GIANOPULOS, DAVID HENRIE
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“We all went through something said about us, [especially] on the internet. It can be a scary, mean place. And just the fact that we were able to push through together and create the dynamics that we created, I was just so proud of us.”
The cast got together to watch the very first episode on the last day, and she gushes fondly about her young(er) co-stars. “We were, I mean, we’re still babies, but especially Max [Matenko]. Oh my gosh, he looked like a little cutie patootie! Now he’s a little grown man.”
Billie Vs. Alex: What Makes The Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’s Lead Her Own Character
It seems deliberate that all three children in the sequel (Alkaio Thiele and Max Matenko as Roman and Milo Russo) were given characters modeled exactly on the original trio. To her credit, Brown is spot on with her Alex Russo tribute, even down to the smallest sarcastic inflections.
She doesn’t think they are the exact same people, though.
“I feel like Billie is a little bit more vulnerable than Alex was. I feel like Alex was tougher. I feel like Billie tries to be tough but eep down, she’s just a jelly bean. She’s hard on the outside, soft on the inside,” Brown tells me. “Also, I hate to say it, but I do kind of feel like Billie was nicer,” she laughs, scrunching up her face. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, mom. I’m sorry, Miss Selena.”
“Alex, you know, she did have a family to back her up for her whole life, and it took Billie until, 12 years old to find that, you know?”
WIZARDS BEYOND WAVERLY PLACE – ØEverything is Not What It SeemsÆ (Disney/Eric McCandless) DAVID HENRIE, JANICE LEANN BROWN, SELENA GOMEZ
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What Janice LeAnn Brown Wanted More Of In Wizards Beyond Waverly Place
She tells me twice she’s an honest person, which, on top of being a fan of the original, means she has Thoughts about how things played out.
“I do think the writers, the producers, the directors, they all did great fitting it into such little time,” she tells me. “But I do feel like we could have gone boom, boom, boom if we had at least maybe 15 episodes max.”
“I definitely would have loved to see the dynamics between (spoiler) Alex, Billie and [her dad] Damien all living together. I don’t want to get in trouble, but when Mason and Alex and also Harper…. I want to know what, yeah, what happened?” she says.
“I would have loved to see Max come on the show. Would have been amazing to see him. I don’t know. There’s just a lot more things. I lowkey kind of wanted to see Dean come back, and Stevie. That would have been dope,” she continues, before saying, “If it did happen though, they’d have to fan me on set because I probably would have fainted.”
This was, of course, said before things hit the proverbial fan — once the show aired, a lot of fans were loudly unhappy about how some storylines were wrapped up, notably (no spoilers) that of Alex and her long-term love Mason Greyback.
Brown, for her part, has a hot take. “I wasn’t really a Mason fan,” she tells me, fully aware of what she has just said. “I was a Dean girl.” My jaw is on the floor, but she doesn’t take it back and we move on.
We circle back to the enormity of being a series lead at her age, especially on a Disney show that already has a loyal fanbase. “It definitely is and was a hard thing to take on,” she begins. “It’s scary. It’s scary for sure. Although, I’m not trying to glaze myself or anything, but I’m a hard worker. And when I know that people are depending on me, I want to go 10 times harder.”
“Whenever I go, which hopefully is years and years and years and years and years and years from now, I want to definitely be accomplished, not just within projects, but just as a person.”
As long as she’s not being too hard on herself, I say. She pauses again.
“You know, in the beginning, I was. I really was. It was difficult. It was really difficult. But I have amazing parents, amazing family. they really did and do help me all the time. So I’m very lucky.”
“I’m very lucky,” she repeats in a British accent. We dissolve into laughter and the heaviness lifts.
WIZARDS BEYOND WAVERLY PLACE – ØEverything is Not What It SeemsÆ (Disney/Eric McCandless) JANICE LEANN BROWN
Disney
What’s Next After Wizards Beyond Waverly Place
Needless to say for someone coming off such a big undertaking, she’s getting used to the post-project quiet. “It feels kind of slow a little bit. That’s just how it’s supposed to go. Even with Zendaya, for example, after Disney, I think she wasn’t working for a few years. And then she got Euphoria, then she did Spider-Man.”
Brown played the child version of Zendaya’s Rue Bennett in Euphoria, so I would say she might be on to something. In the meantime, music is in progress (“that may or may not drop soon”). Auditions. Callbacks. Opportunities.
“I believe in myself, you know? I have faith, and I just hope that I can accomplish it,” says Brown. Then she corrects herself.
“Actually, no, I can accomplish it.”
All seasons of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place are now streaming on Disney Plus.
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