From <a href="https://comicvibe.com/whats-new-to-watch-on-disney-and-hulu-the-week-of-aug-7-2026/” title=”What's New to Watch on Disney+ and Hulu the Week of Aug. 7, 2026″>Disney teen wizard to ‘X-rated’ occult epic, here’s why Selena is closing the Alex Russo chapter for good — and what comes next with her bold upcoming role.
ByBernadette Giacomazzo
August 7, 2026
Key Takeaways
- After the August 4 series finale of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, Selena Gomez says she is officially done playing Alex Russo, calling it “surreal” to say goodbye to the character that launched her career and reunited her on-screen with Jennifer Stone.
- Gomez used the revival to step behind the camera for her directorial debut and now pivots to Brady Corbet’s reportedly X-rated, genre-defying film The Origin of the World alongside Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, further distancing herself from her Disney-era image.
- Now married to producer Benny Blanco and collaborating on music like “Te Olvido (La La),” Gomez says she’ll miss making family TV and hopes Wizards’ finale helps audiences “fall in love with family shows again” that everyone can watch and laugh at together.
Selena Gomez is officially hanging up Alex Russo’s wand—and the timing couldn’t make the contrast with her next chapter much sharper.
Following the August 4 series finale of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, Gomez said she is finished playing the sarcastic teenage wizard who helped make her a household name nearly two decades ago. “This is it. This is the end,” Gomez said in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@EntertainmentTonight” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Entertainment Tonight special accompanying the finale. “It’s really surreal to say that I’m done playing this character.”
Gomez first became Alex Russo on Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place in 2007, playing the character through the original show’s 2012 conclusion before eventually reuniting with David Henrie for Wizards Beyond Waverly Place. Gomez served as an executive producer and made appearances as Alex, but the revival ultimately became more than a nostalgia exercise: She made her directorial debut during its third and final season.
The four-part finale also brought Jennifer Stone back as Alex’s best friend, Harper Finkle. For Stone, returning to the old dynamic with Gomez carried the weight of closing a chapter that began when both actresses were teenagers. “Filming with Selena, I was a mess,” Stone told ET. “It felt like saying goodbye to, in a weird way, your teenage self.”
Gomez is leaving Alex behind with a markedly different acting project ahead. She is attached to star alongside Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender in Brady Corbet’s next movie, reportedly titled The Origin of the World.
Corbet has described his 200-page script as “X-rated” and said the sprawling story will explore “American mysticism” and “the history of the occult in America.” Sadie Soverall has also been eyed for a lead role.
“The film spans from the 19th century into the present day — it’s just predominantly focused on the ’70s,” Corbet previously told The Hollywood Reporter. “The film is really, really genre-defying.”
It’s a significant pivot from the family-friendly franchise Gomez is now closing out, but not her first move into adult material. She made an early break from her Disney image with Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers and more recently starred in Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez. Her television career has similarly moved beyond Disney through Only Murders in the Building.
Outside acting, Gomez’s life has changed considerably since Alex Russo first arrived on television. She married producer Benny Blanco in September 2025, has increasingly shared glimpses of their life together, and recently collaborated with Blanco and Becky G on the single “Te Olvido (La La).”
Still, Gomez said she hopes the final Wizards episodes preserve something increasingly rare on television.
“My hope is that people fall in love with family shows again,” she said, adding that she wants audiences to appreciate having something “the whole family can get together, watch, hopefully laugh.”
“I’m going to really miss that,” Gomez added.
