SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the final season of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place.
Gregg Sulkin can rest easy knowing there’s a universe out there where Alex Russo and Mason Greyback are still together.
“I mean, I think, in my heart, Alex and Mason are always endgame,” he recently told Deadline after a brief role reprisal as the fan-favorite werewolf and Alex’s former flame for the Wizards Beyond Waverly Place conclusion.
“So, storyline wise, I think it’s more in the heart than on the page, and I think all the fans around the world will resonate with that,” he added. “But, of course, delighted to be back on the show. Delighted to work with Selena again. It’s very special to be on back on set in my first American home.”
Sulkin makes a delightful, if limited, appearance in the second of four episodes alongside former co-stars Selena Gomez and Jennifer Stone, also known as Alex’s human best friend Harper Finkle.
As viewers know by now, Wizards Beyond follows Alex’s daughter Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown), whom she shares with former dark wizard Damian Penwulf. But that’s in the real world. In this world, Alex is still living with Harper and is dating Mason, who Harper believes is about to stop by with plans to propose.
But, when he gets there, he reveals something else. Mason can’t propose, because he’s dead. Through Mason’s revelations, we learn that Alex has been in some sort of limbo state after throwing herself through a dimensional rift to save her family at the end of Season 2. He and Harper are there only to guide her back to her family.
“I felt like there was only one person who was going to do that, and thankfully, they chose Mason,” he said. “I think Mason has always been Alex’s rock.”
It’s been more than a decade since the Wizards of Waverly Place finale, and still Sulkin supposes “it took three seconds” to slip back into character.
“All I had to do was look at Selena, and it was like, ‘Okay, cool, we’re back,’” he said. “I think, when you have such a special bond with people on a professional and personal level, it’s very easy to slip back into it.”
Wizards Beyond has brought back many of the characters from the original Disney Channel series, which ran from 2007 to 2012, so it has always begged the question of whether these important characters would return in some capacity. While Alex and Mason were dating at the end of Wizards of Waverly Place, the continuation establishes early on that Alex has married someone else.
Wizards Beyond follows Alex daughter Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown), who she shares with her husband and former dark wizard Damien Penwulf. In large part, the series follows Billie as she unwittingly works to help make her family whole again.
Whatever the canon may be, Sulkin remained open to returning throughout Wizard Beyond‘s short three-season run and had an inkling that the writers would find a way to eventually make sense of a return for Mason.
“It was just a matter of fitting in the perfect slot for my character to come back, whilst also giving space for the new show to breathe, whilst also paying respect to my character, [and] Selena and I’s characters’ relationships,” he continued.
He hoped the stars might align. “And thankfully, they did.”
It’s certainly a brutal end for a beloved original character, but luckily in this universe death doesn’t feel quite so permanent.
“I think the amazing about wizards, and when you’re dealing with magic, is that anything can happen,” Sulkin reassured audiences, adding “this was a a chance to say goodbye for now.”
He says he’ll “never say never” to future opportunities for Mason’s return, should the franchise spawn again. “The show gave me so much, so I feel like it would be very inconsiderate of me to not want to return the favor to the fans and also the channel for believing in me.”
