Peter Murrieta Wishes he Could have Explored Relationship betw. Alex & Stevie

[JamesG]

"Wizards" Showrunner Wanted to Explore "Obvious" Relationship between Selena Gomez and Hayley Kiyoko's Characters
by Andy Swift
March 27, 2023


No disrespect to Alex Russo’s star-crossed romance with werewolf Mason, but the original showrunner of Disney Channel’s "Wizards of Waverly Place" had a much more interesting pairing in mind for Selena Gomez‘s character, one fans never got to see.

During his appearance on the March 27 episode of rewatch podcast "Wizards of Waverly Pod", Peter Murrieta, who ran "Wizards" for its first three seasons (2007–2010), was asked to share a storyline he wishes he could have explored further. And it’s a biggie.

“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,” Murrieta said, referring to the bad-girl wizard character played by Hayley Kiyoko in four episodes.





While he would have liked to explore them as potentially more than friends, Murrieta said, “We weren’t able to in that time, but it was pretty clear to all of us what that relationship was. That would have been fun.”

“If it was just a few years down the line, we maybe could have played with that,” co-host Jennifer Stone said, with co-host David DeLuise acknowledging that “nowadays that could happen” on Disney Channel.

“Disney Channel has had characters, and they did it, but we got as close as we could,” Murrieta said. “Pretty close. It was pretty much right there.”





He also revealed what his ending would have been for the series, which actually did revolve quite a bit around Gomez and Gregg Sulkin’s characters.

“I was hoping the fourth season would be about the building of [Alex] and Mason’s relationship,” he said. This time around, the couple would “be good for each other and fix each other.” And even though Alex would still win in the contest in Murrieta’s ending, she would give up being the family wizard because she’s in love with a non-wizard, just like her dad.

Murrieta also thought the show should have ended with Rachel Dratch (as grown-up Harper) reading this whole story to a bed full of kids.

https://tvline.com/2023/03/27/wizard...hayley-kiyoko/

[JamesG]

Hayley Kiyoko Says her "Lesbian Energy was Really Thriving" on "Wizards of Waverly Place"
by Lauren Huff
May 15, 2023


Hayley Kiyoko is seeing her role in "Wizards of Waverly Place" in a new light.

Kiyoko appeared as a guest on PodCo's Wizards of Waverly Pod on Monday and responded to recent comments from "Waverly" showrunner Peter Murrieta that he would have liked to have explored a potential romantic relationship between Selena Gomez's Alex and Kiyoko's Stevie, affectionately dubbed Stalex by fans.

"I was just like naturally very gay... I booked the role, and honestly, I had no notion or thoughts that there was some kind of like undertone or underlying storyline that was going on," she told podcast hosts and fellow "Wizards" stars Jennifer Stone and David DeLuise.




However, after a rewatch of the Disney Channel show she says she now sees the undertones that many fans have long shipped. "The lesbian energy was really thriving at that moment. But I was in the closet to the public at that time," she said.

Kiyoko explained that though she was "probably out to people" in her circle and life, she didn't officially publicly come out until she released her song "Girls Like Girls" in 2015. "That was like my coming out, which was years later. But it's funny to look back and it's really so much fun to hear the fans' reactions to Stalex and the comments of everyone just being like, 'This is so gay.' So, I was just a baby Hayley in the closet at that time [on the show]," she said.

https://ew.com/tv/hayley-kiyoko-wiza...ergy-thriving/