Entertainment weekly gives us a first look at the poster for The Wizards Return, the new Wizards of Waverly Place TV special. E! Online also has an image of Selena Gomez decked out in leather as Alex Russo.

The premise of the special has Alex vs. Alex as good and evil Alex square off against each other. Evil Alex with a white streak in her hair is consistent with how Alex looked when she turned evil in the “Saving WizTech” two parter from season two. In the background of the poster is the leaning tower of Pisa, which is where the battle in the film is meant to take place.

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The Wizards of Waverly Place TV show ended earlier this year. Though many have been hopeful for some sort of follow up movie, we haven’t had any real confirmation of this… until now! The show’s star Selena Gomez has confirmed in a Radio Disney interview (included below) that a new one hour Wizards of Waverly Place special will be airing on Disney Channel early next year. She will star and be executive producer on the project.

The story has the Russo family traveling to Tuscany where Alex splits herself into Good and Evil Alex. The climax of the movie will have the two battling at the tower of Pisa. I haven’t seen a Good and Evil version of someone battle over the tower of Pisa since Superman 3. Hopefully this one won’t take place in front of a blue screen.

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Vinnk interviews Wizards of the Coast Japan about this PSN-only exclusive Magic: The Gathering game designed to introduce Japanese gamers to the classic collectible card game.

See more at FamicomDojo.TV:
http://famicomdojo.tv/tokyo-game-show/2011/interviews/magic-the-gathering

Wizards of Waverly Place has come to an end after four excellent seasons. With the finale came the long anticipated Wizard Competition, and with that an answer to the question that fans have been asking themselves for the past four years, “Who will be the Russo Family Wizard”? As is the case in all Wizard families, only one of the siblings is able to keep their Wizard powers and become a more powerful full Wizard, and this decision is made by way of a Wizard Competition. For the sake of spoilers, I will hold off on the reveal until later in the article.

The details of the Wizard Competition have always been a mystery. We do get an idea of what one might be like in “Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie” as Alex and Justin faced off against each other in an emergency competition. In that setting, they had to compete in a battle to reach a sphere using only the four elements. In this case, Alex won the Wizard Competition, and could easily have kept her full powers, but instead decided to return things to what they were to avoid having their family be torn apart.

Update 2011-03-09: I was wrong! Max returns this Friday, March 11th.

It looks like Jake T. Austin will finally be returning as Max on the hit Disney show Wizards of Waverly Place. Earlier this year Jake’s character Max was turned into a young girl in an unexpected twist and it wasn’t clear how long this change would last. Today Jake T. Austin confirmed in this twitter post that he’s “back on wizards set”.

Jake T. Austin as Max

So when will he be back? According to this twitter post by the show’s writer Todd J. Greenwald they are doing the table reading for the show’s 100th episode today. Max turned into Maxine, played by Bailee Madison, in episode 84 which aired on January 7th. The latest episode to air was episode 86 which aired last Friday. This would mean some 14 more episodes will play before Max’s return, though with Disney Channel’s erratic schedule who can say when this would be.

Bailee Madison as Maxine

Check out more of the cast and crew of Wizards of Waverly Place on Twitter.

I’ve written and rewritten this post at least three times today as new developments have surfaced. So lets get the basics down. Wizard magazine and ToyFare magazine are now defunct publications with most of their respective staffs being laid off effective immediately.

A now-former Wizard employee spoke with ifanboy and had some interesting things to say.

A self-aggrandizing press release from Wizard owner Gareb Shamus announced that the company was now a public company, will be launching an online magazine called ‘Wizard World’, and plans to have a 12 city convention tour. There was no mention of the discontinuation of the company’s two major publications.

Those who had subscriptions can expect not to be reimbursed since Mr. Shamus has something of a reputation for non-payment of contract work, and other shady practices.

As someone who had a subscription early in the magazine’s career and has roughly the first 100 issues, its sad to see it go, but I can’t tell you the last time I picked an issue up. It was a shadow of its former self. ToyFare’s end was a low blow for the toy industry as it was one of the few examples of a print publication based on toys that had remained successful and managed to get exclusive reveals of unseen figures.

You can see the press release and statement from Wizard World PR after the jump.

[Via Newsarama]
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Another fun little Easter Egg from the Disney TV show “Wizards of Waverly Place”. In episode 23 of season 2, “Paint by Committee”, Alex Russo, played by Selena Gomez, paints a giant letter A on a wall in an abandoned train tunnel. When asked about it’s meaning she says “It’s my initial in a circle representing … my initial in a circle.” but the symbol bears a striking resemblance to an anarchy symbol.

Alex Russo paints an Anarchy Symbol in Wizards of Waverly Place

What could be the symbolism behind this logo? Alex Russo is a pretty free spirited girl, often opposing authority and rules, so the anarchy symbol certainly applies on a fairly superficial level, but I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest the art department be insinuating we all be better off in a world without Government.

Later in the episode as Alex paints her mural “New York Above and Below” we can once again see the iconic “initial in a circle” shown in the below portion referred to as the “gritty grimy New York, filled with barf”.

Another Anarchy Symbol Appears on the Bottom Right of 'New York Above and Below'

Wizards of Waverly Place is known for hiding such symbols. Alex Russo can be seen wearing peace symbols as part of various outfits throughout the show. These occur so frequently that an effort is made to include at least one peace symbol in Selena Gomez’s outfits in every episode of season 2. As opposed to the anarchy symbolism, the crew have made clear that they have strong feelings about putting forth a positive message of peace. Earlier this month Powet reported on Selena wearing an I love hoe bags t-shirt. Though in that case it may have been a mere coincidence, this painting’s resemblance to an anarchy symbol seems to be more than chance.

I spotted this shirt in an episode of the Disney TV show “Wizards of Waverly Place” earlier this week. Here we have Selena Gomez’s character Alex Russo wearing an interesting shirt. It’s hard to see what the full text on this shirt says but from the two shorts scenes it’s shown in the only visible letters for the most part read “I <3 Hoe Bags".

Selena Gomez expresses her love of hoe bags

Is this specific shirt placement intentional? It seems like quite an oversight to have half a shirt’s message obstructed from view in a well assembled outfit on the show’s main character but this could just be a coincidence. The text of the full shirt is “I <3 Shoes, Bags & Boys“. I don’t know that this message is terribly well reflected in a show that doesn’t really focus on a girl’s love of bags that much. No shortage of shoes and boys though…

If you’re looking for the episode in which this shirt appears it’s the 5th episode of season 2, “Alex’s Brother Maximan” in which Justin builds a robot, Max dresses up as a superhero to fight crime and Alex has a date with Dean at the skate park. The shirt appears around the middle of the episode.