Maria Canals-Barrera To Reprise Role As Theresa Russo On ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place'
Grandma’s coming! Maria Canals-Barrera, who played Russo family matriarch Theresa Russo for 84 episodes of the 2007-2012 Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place, as well as its movie and reunion special, is officially returning for its sequel series Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, which premiered at the end of October.
Though the Cristela actress had revealed it on a rather small podcast, was most widely revealed over the weekend by her onscreen husband, David DeLuise, aka Jerry Russo, and posted to Instagram “A lovely day! I enjoyed the ride”. As previously reported, DeLuise had already put in an appearance this season, in the seventh episode "We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Float", so it’s good to see the appearance is not entirely token. That episode easily had the most substantial mention of Theresa, with Jerry telling their son Justin, played by David Henrie, about why he is where he is. “Well, your mother took up tennis. And apparently, I’m not very good at it. And now, I’m here at the spellp-line.” The picture it captioned was him back on set in the lair… with Canals-Barrera very visible. No wonder DeLuise tagged executive producer Selena Gomez, who plays their daughter Alex, telling her he missed her. With the cat basically out of the bag, the posts from the cast soon followed. Maria herself posted a litany of pictures. Some on set, some off with all sorts of permutations of cast members, with the caption “I’m Back, WITCHES!💜💜💜💜”
Star and executive producer David Henrie, who plays Justin Russo, welcomed back his onscreen mom with a set of three photos of them together on set, captioned “It was such a joy to have momma on the show! Her grandbabies missed her dearly! Can’t wait for you to see this episode, there’s some touching moments!” The actors who play her grandsons, Alkaio Thiele who plays Roman, the older of Justin’s sons, posted “No home is complete without an abuelita.” while Max Matenko, who plays the younger Milo wrote “Here’s to the best Abuelita a boy could ever have! An excellent actress and a very sweet and funny person!! It is an honor to be part of your TV family!” Mimi Gianopulos, who plays Justin’s wife Giada, commemorated the meeting of the Mrs. Russos, to which Maria reciprocated with love in her Stories.
Canals-Barrera did attend the Wizards Beyond Waverly Place premiere, being one of four attendees who had appeared on the original show but had not been confirmed to return. She was the most likeliest however, in a group that featured Gregg Sulkin, who played Alex’s werewolf boyfriend Mason Greyback, Josh Sussman who played Hugh Normous, a wizard adopted by giants, and Hayley Kiyoko, who I accidentally omitted when I first mentioned this group, played deceased wizard rebellion leader Stevie, who Alex briefly befriended. A timeline on whether she had already secured the return when she attended is unclear. Aside from Theresa, she is probably best known as Shayera Hol aka Hawkgirl in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series, Sunset Boulevardez on The Proud Family and The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, Paulina on Danny Phantom, and Ritchie’s mom Connie Torres in the Camp Rock films. She has also been the voice of Miles’s mother Rio Morales on Ultimate Spider-Man and is the voice of Dora’s abuela on the Dora reboot.
Source: Alkaio Thiele