While David Henrie will forever be known as Justin Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place, the older brother of Selena Gomez iconic character, there was another Disney star who almost nabbed the role. Keep reading to find out who.
Which Disney Star Almost Played Justin In ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’?
Before David booked the role of the oldest Russo sibling, Joe Jonas auditioned for his Wizards of Waverly Place character! That’s right, we could have had Selena and Joe playing siblings on screen.
ICYMI, the Wizards of Waverly Place starred Selena, David, Jake T. Austin, Jennifer Stone, Maria Canals-Barrera, David DeLuise and Gregg Sulkin. It went on for four epic seasons before coming to an end in 2012, and followed a magical family who were competing to become the Family Wizard, while also balancing school, homework, boys and all the other stuff that comes with being a teenager.
Even though Joe didn’t join the Wizards of Waverly Place cast, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t successful on the children’s network. In fact, he went on to work with The Disney Channel extensively as he starred in the Camp Rock movies and also the show Jonas alongside his brothers, Kevin and Nick.
Following his time on the Disney Channel, Joe has gotten real about his thoughts on growing up on the network.
“Being a part of the Disney thing for so long will make you not want to be this perfect little puppet forever,” he told New York Magazine in 2013. “Eventually, I hit a limit and thought, ‘Screw all this, I’m just going to show people who I am.’ I think that happened to a lot of us. Disney kids are spunky in some way, and I think that’s why Disney hires them. ‘Look, he jumped up on the table!’ Five, six, ten years later, they’re like, ‘Oh, what do we do?’ Come on, guys. You did this to yourselves.”
Since Disney, Joe has left the acting world and has stayed focuses on his music. He’s released solo tracks, created the band DNCE and also reunited with the Jonas Brothers (a couple of times), it’s safe to say he’s been doing just fine — even without booking Justin from Wizards.
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