Alex Russo Is Seemingly Dead In The Wizards Of Waverly Place Reboot

It’s a sad day for everyone who grew up relating to Alex Russo’s laidback confidence and witty snark. The latest season of the new Wizards of Waverly Place reboot series seems to have killed off the original show’s central character, and in one of the most heartbreaking ways imaginable. Well, there may still be some hope for Selena Gomez’s beloved wizard, but her sacrificial moment did feel pretty final.

The fate of Alex Russo was sealed in the Season 2 finale of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, which was released on Disney+ on Oct. 8 ahead of its airing on Disney Channel a week and a half later. In the climactic episode, Alex, Justin, and his family are being held captive by the evil Lord Morsus as he uses the power of Justin’s protégé Billie to open a deadly portal to the world of dark magic. In seeing Billie’s pain, Alex is able to break a mind-wipe spell that she never realized she had cast on herself years ago. As the spell breaks, Alex realizes that Billie is actually her daughter.

With her maternal emotions flooding back, Alex decides to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save her daughter. After a tearful embrace with Billie where she tells her daughter how much she loves her, Alex throws herself at Morsus, bringing them both through the portal and sealing it closed.

After the scene began to blow up on social media, fans mourned that the show had killed off Alex — although, that may not be entirely accurate. She’s technically trapped in the world of dark magic, so it isn’t confirmed that she died. But then again, this is a children’s show on Disney Channel, which obviously can’t show a death like that on-screen, so this may be the best way the show can communicate to viewers that Alex is now gone forever.

Whether she’s technically dead or not, it does seem like this may be Gomez’s final farewell to her spell-binding character after nearly two decades. RIP to a real one.

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