Jennifer Stone (Wizards of Waverly Place, The In-Between, Secondhand Lions) is reflecting on her return as Harper Finkle in the final season of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place. According to Deadline, the actress opened up about reprising the beloved role nearly 15 years after the conclusion of Wizards of Waverly Place. 

After the original series ended, Stone stepped away from the spotlight and attended nursing school. She admitted that she never expected to return to the role, even after the sequel series premiered. 

“When Wizards Beyond first came out, I had a conversation with David, and he was kind of like, ‘Hey, if it makes sense down the line, maybe you’ll be on for an episode,’” Stone told Deadline. “I was pleasantly surprised when I got the call to come back.”

In the season finale, Alex Russo, played by Selena Gomez (Spring Breakers, Monte Carlo, Only Murders in the Building), finds herself trapped in an alternate reality where she is still living alongside Harper and dating her former boyfriend, Mason Greyback, played by Gregg Sulkin (Faking It, Don’t Hang Up, The Six Triple Eight). Stone explained that the storyline allowed her to revisit ideas that had originally been discussed following the end of the original series. 

According to Deadline, Sulkin also reflected on how quickly he fell back into the role of Mason Greyback after more than a decade away from the character. Like Stone, who recently described reprising Harper Finkle as “wonderfully weird,” Sulkin explained that returning to the world of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place felt almost effortless.

“All I had to do was look at Selena, and it was like, ‘Okay, cool, we’re back,'” Sulkin 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.”

According to Stone, producers had previously considered the possibility of a spinoff centered on Alex and Harper sharing an apartment together. The actress said the finale allowed her to revisit what that future might have looked like.

Stone also described how easily she was able to slip back into the role after so many years away from the character. 

“It was eerie. I was literally saying, ‘It’s so weird because I haven’t played this character in 15 years or something.’ It was like muscle memory. It was literally like riding a bike. You just jump right into it,” Stone explained. 

The actress added that returning to the set alongside Gomez and Sulkin felt both nostalgic and surreal. “Wonderfully weird is the best way I can put it… to see all of us slip right back into the dynamic we had when we were 15 or 16.”

Wizards Beyond Waverly Place stars Gomez, David Henrie (Monster Summer, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, Reagan), Janice LeAnn Brown (Growing Up Immigrant, Montross: Blood Rules, Euphoria), Alkaio Thiele (I’ll Be There, Spidey and His Amazing Friends, The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball), Max Matenko (Platonic, This Is Us, General Hospital), Mimi Gianopulos (What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Get a Job, Baby Daddy), Taylor Cora (Forever Squad, American Gangster: Trap Queens) and Sulkin. 

All episodes of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place are currently streaming on Disney+.