If you’ve grown up watching the Disney Channel, you may already be a fan of the teen sitcom Wizards of Waverley Place, which made a star of Selena Gomez.
Between 2007 and 2012, the series told the story of Alex Russo, a teenage wizard living in New York City’s Waverley Place, with her loving family.
Alex and her two siblings, Justin and Max, grow up knowing that one day they will have to compete to win the sole custody of their family’s powers in line with the rules of their magical world.
The sitcom follows Alex as she tries to keep her magical abilities a secret from her normal friends and frequently uses her supernatural powers irresponsibly.
In 2010, an episode saw Hayley Kiyoko make a guest appearance as Stevie Nichols, an evil wizard. Watching Stevie and Alex’s interactions during that episode, many fans had since theorised that there was romantic chemistry between the two female characters.
Just last year Kiyoko, who is a lesbian, had commented on the storyline, saying: “At this time, I wasn’t openly queer and so, when I was on Wizards, I think anytime I was doing a show I felt very insecure of exposing myself as a flaming lesbian.
“But obviously, the fans who have watched the show, Stevie is a part of their gay awakening, and I wasn’t able to mask my lesbian energy very much in the character.”
No-one from the show had officially confirmed or denied the fan theory, but the series’ showrunner, Peter Murrieta, finally addressed it on the Wizards of Waverley Pod, a podcast that explores the show.
When he was asked if there were any storylines he wishes he had been able to explore further, he said the answer was easy. He shared: “I wished we could have played more with what was quite obvious to a lot of us, which was the relationship between Stevie and Alex.
“We weren’t able to in that time, but it was pretty clear to all of us what that relationship was. And that would have been fun.”
Murrieta added that Disney has since had LGBTQ+ characters, but “at that time, it wasn’t a thing”.
“But we got as close as we could… Pretty close. It was pretty much there. That would have been great,” he explained.
