In 2007, Wizards of Waverly Place brought much-needed magic to the Disney Channel’s roster, becoming one of the most popular shows on the channel. Disney is hoping to recapture that magic with a sequel, bringing back the Russo family once more, but where is Max and what’s he been up to all this time?
Max Russo, played by Jake T. Austin, was the youngest of the Russo kids. Where his brother Justin (Davide Henrie) got the book smarts and his sister Alex (Selena Gomez) got the street smarts, it felt like there weren’t any more smarts to hand out. Max was one of the show’s more comedic elements, not as uptight as Justin, or as angsty and sarcastic as his sister, but lovable and goofy—a classic example of Golden Retriever energy.
The end of the series brought the long-running family dilemma of who would be the family wizard to the forefront, with Alex, Justin, and Max having to fight it out to keep ahold of their magic. Alex emerged victorious, but even in defeat Justin still held on to his abilities as he was appointed the next headmaster of Wiz-Tech (low-budget Hogwarts). Max is the only sibling to relinquish his abilities, but fear not, he gets to inherit the family sandwich shop!
It’s not over yet folks!
Though we thought the story was over there, at the beginning of 2024 it was announced that a sequel focusing this time on Henrie’s character, Justin, would be underway, and the family would be back together once more. Surprisingly, Austin was missing from much of the online chatter and social media posting related to the sequel, leaving many to wonder whether he would be involved or not.
The actor later confirmed via an Instagram story that he would return for the reboot, writing, “Wow! Am looking forward to getting together with my wizards family.”
What’s Austin been doing since?
Having started his acting career at the young age of 11, voicing Diego in three episodes of Dora the Explorer on Nickelodeon, Austin shared his time between his voice acting work on the spin-off, Go, Diego, Go and playing Max in Wizards. He also starred opposite Emma Roberts in the 2009 movie Hotel for Dogs while juggling the above.
After Wizards ended, Austin swapped his magical family for a more normal, if still untraditional, family in the sitcom The Fosters, playing Jesus Foster. Austin only stayed with the show for two seasons and was replaced by Noah Centineo in 2015. The move was reportedly down to the fact that his role was going to be greatly reduced and so Austin left to pursue other opportunities.
Those came in the form of a return to voice-acting taking on the role of DC’s Blue Beetle in Justice League Actions and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract. He also voiced the character of Alex in the less-than-well-received The Emoji Movie. In recent years he’s been back in front of the camera with roles in films like Killing for Extra Credit (2024) and Adverse (2020).
(featured image: Disney Channel)
