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"The bear, me, you, bear trap. "
―Justin Russo[src]
Justin Russo
Justin Russo 2
Character Statistics
Gender: Male
Age Group: 16 (Season 1)

16-17 (Season 2)
17-18 (Season 3)
18-19 (Season 4)

Birthday: c. 1991
Height: 5’11
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Dark Brown
Alias: J Man (himself)
Professor Russo
Giuseppe (by Max)
Lives In: New York City, NY
Employment: Headmaster at WizTech
Full Name: Justin Vincenzo Pepe Russo
Affiliations: Waverly Sub Station
Wiz Tech
Relationships
Girlfriend: Juliet van Heusen
Ex-Girlfriends: Rosie
Daphne
Miranda Hampson
Amy (video game)
Crushes: London Tipton (former)
Millie (former)
Kari Landsdorf (former)
Dated: Isabella
Sarah
Tutor
Harper Finkle (unofficially)
Friends: Zeke Beakerman
Susan
Mason Greybeck
Harper Finkle
Hugh Normous
Professor Crumbs
Nemesis: Gigi Hollingsworth
Frankie
Jerko Phoenix
Dr. Evilini (arrested)
Gorog (deceased)
Production Info
Portrayed by: David Henrie
First Appearance: Crazy 10-Minute Sale
Last Appearance: "Who Will Be The Family Wizard"
"The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex" (mentioned and picture only)

Justin Vincenzo Pepe Russo is the eldest of the Russo kids and is a full wizard, like his younger sister Alex. He's one of the most gifted wizarding students of recent times, creating his own spell, being able to use the Russo family wand with amazing success, and being well viewed by adults and professors, both mortal and magical. In the show's finale, Justin keeps his wizard powers, replacing Professor Crumbs as the new Headmaster of WizTech.

Even though Justin has had many romantic relationships through the run of the show, his most significant relationship is the relationship with Juliet van Heusen, which is ongoing.

Early Life

Justin Vincenzo Pepé Russo was born in 1991 to Theresa and Jerry Russo. He's the oldest of the three Russo children. Justin grew up with a younger sister Alex and a younger brother Max.

History

Justin is of Italian & Mexican descent, he's Alex's and Max's brother, and the oldest of the three Russo siblings. He is very smart, and is often considered a nerd. He is in numerous clubs and has learned over 5000 spells. He continues his wizard studies in a Monster Hunting course. For his knowledge in wizardry, he takes after his father Jerry, who originally won the Wizard Family Competition against Kelbo and Megan. Unlike Alex, he is an overachiever when it comes to school. He is fairly athletic, and very respectful to his parents and other adults. Justin is responsible, sensible, kindhearted and hardworking, but can be a little sarcastic to Alex and Max. He revealed to Alex that he is jealous of her because he felt she is blessed with magic skills that he can't live up to, and it's reinforced when he refers to Alex as "daddy's little princess" (a unique, and often favoring, bond between a father and daughter). This is what drives him to be a better wizard. Alex consoles him by stating that he is her rock and foundation, and that she is actually jealous of his academic achievements, even though she openly admits to not caring about school. He has a long-term relationship with Juliet Van Heusen, a teenaged-looking vampire whose family runs the "Late Night Bite" (the local competition for the Waverly Sub Station), which prompted a feud between the Russos and the Van Heusens. At first, their love is a forbidden romance, which Alex points out by referencing William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, but then they eventually start dating openly. Justin reveals to Alex that Juliet is his true love, after he felt heartbroken about being unable to see her due to the feuding families. Justin gets heartbroken again when Juliet was forced to break up with him due to her getting scratched by Mason the werewolf, as she stated that when that happens a vampire's appearance will revert to their true age, which in Juliet's case is over 2,000 years old.

Later in the series, Alex tells the world that they are wizards and her and Justin's training levels move down, so he makes a class with students who got kicked out of WizTech, and later falls in love with an angel named Rosie.

At first, it seems that Justin won the Wizard Competition after being the first to cross the finish line, and he was about to be granted his full powers, when he says that he can't accept it because he didn't really win; Alex would have won if she hadn't come to back to help him, and he says that she deserves to be the Russo family wizard. Because of his honesty, Professor Crumbs allows both Justin and Alex to keep their powers and for Justin to take over as Headmaster of Wiz Tech.

Personality

"One of the brightest students of recent times..."

Professor Crumbs

Justin is the most intelligent and possesses vast knowledge. In magical subjects, such as spellcraft and magical creatures, but also in mathematics, history, geography, and robotics. He's capable of building robots, water motors, and mechanisms that simulate a flying carpet. His own knowledge makes him the chosen one by his family to solve problems, like finding ways to hide magical affairs to protect magic from exposure.

Justin is viewed by his family to be intelligent, kind, and generous, but he also has a vengeful and naive side. He strongly believes in aliens and that the language spoken by the Alien Language Club, is authentic alien language and not malarkey. He's shown to be gullible as seen in Wizards Exposed, when Justin was interrogated by the government, he was manipulated into telling the truth about being a wizard by claiming to him that they found an alien transmission from actual aliens, but due to his obsession with aliens, he actually believed that the transmission was real. In Who Will Be The Family Wizard when Justin actually thought he was disqualified from the Wizard competition and he began resenting Alex, it actually turned out to be another one of Crumbs' hidden tests to prove if they can live well without magic. He can sometimes be self-centered, as proven when he found out that Alex was back in the competition and that she won a Wizard of the Year award, he expressed his envy towards Alex's win. This is also seen when he and the family traveled back in time to the 1950's with Harper, and Alex got left behind with Justin refusing to go back for her. He even refused to rescue his best friend, Zeke, from a griffin to focus on the competition. He likes to be the center of attention.

Physical Appearance

Justin is a tall and handsome young man in his late teens and physically taller than his siblings. He has short dark brown hair and green eyes. Justin is of Mexican and Italian-American descent.

Abilities

Justin became the first Twelve Ball champion, proving that he is one of the most powerful wizards in the Wizard World. Although he lost the Family Wizard competition, Justin was allowed to keep his powers and become a full wizard by Professor Crumbs, replacing him as the headmaster of WizTech, further showing just how powerful and talented he is as Justin was trusted to lead a school full of wizards despite his young age. Professor Crumbs states that he made this choice because of Justin's commendable integrity and knowledge.

  • Above-average intelligence: In many episodes, it's shown that Justin knows many things, his knowledge includes but isn't limited to, history, science, geography, mathematics, robotics, and general knowledge. In "Alex's Brother, Maximan" he builds a working robot out of household items. In Franken Girl, he combines magic and science to build a Frankenstein-like robot. He is the only sibling to be fluent in Spanish, being able to read and translate it as well.
  • Hand-to-hand combat: As shown in "Wizards vs. Werewolves" he is quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat, being able to hold his own against a werewolf for a short time, and seeing as werewolves are stronger, faster and more agile than humans by an impressive margin, this is quite impressive. Although in an earlier story, Alex laughed at the idea of him getting in a fight, so it's possible he only recently learned how to fight because of his monster hunting. He also holds his own during the gang fight in "Western Show", further demonstrating his combat abilities.
  • Spells Expert: Justin is an expert on spells, and knows many useful ones for many occasions. However, he isn't as good as Alex at improvisation. He also knows about spell locks.
  • Magic Expert: Justin knows a lot about magic of all kinds, such as charms, potions, and curses. Magic doesn't come naturally to him though, so he studies extensively to make up for it.
  • Marksmanship: As shown in "Wizard For A Day" Justin is crack shot.

Relationships

Family

Alex Russo

The relationship between Alex and Justin is possibly one of the closest relationships in the series. Alex and Justin are really close siblings, closer than his relationship with Max. Alex always confides in Justin and when she has a problem, she turns to him to help her undo a spell that went wrong, or even for general advice. Justin has also shown to be quite caring and overprotective of Alex, such as in Wizards vs. Werewolves where he both emotionally and physically protects his sister from Mason.

Max Russo

Justin often gets roped into his brother's hairbrained schemes, and has to deal with the aftermath. He can get frustrated, annoyed, and confused by his brother's complete lack of forethought and intelligence. He does, however, sometimes enjoy helping Max play pranks on their sister Alex. A significant amount of the brothers' dialogue is them arguing about ideas, Max's antics, or Justin's "nerdiness." The two generally get along well as siblings though.

Kari Landsdorf

Justin had a crush on Kari in "The Supernatural" and took Alex's advice of using magic to get on the baseball team because she only dates baseball players. She started to like him, too, after he got on the team and started supporting him. He asks her out and she tells him she only watches films about cats. He finds this too weird and doesn't pursue a relationship with her.

Millie

In "New Employee" Justin had a crush on Millie, the new Sub Station employee. Justin asked her to the Tears of Blood concert, and she took the tickets. When he went to her apartment he discovered she was going to the concert with her boyfriend whilst he was meant to babysit her cousin.

Isabella

In "Beware Wolf" Justin goes on a date with a girl he meets online on WizFace. He starts falling for her but Alex tells him that Isabella is a werewolf, and Isabella herself confirms this. Justin says he doesn't care and kisses her, but she says that once you kiss a werewolf you become one. He turns into a werewolf and they run away together, but Justin's family finds him and gives him a potion to reverse the werewolf curse.

Centaur Girl

Centaur Girl

In "Beware Wolf" it's mentioned that Justin once asked a girl on WizFace to prom, but she turned out to be a centaur. He later calls her back and she wishes he would give her a second chance, but he finds it too weird.

Daphne

In "Family Game Night" she develops feelings for him and believes he's her boyfriend, tricking him into saying they're dating. Justin tries to break up with Daphne by bringing her to Family Game Night while prompting his family into causing their usual chaos. After a while Daphne has enough and flees, telling Justin not to bring girls home.

Tutor

Tutor was Max's wizard tutor seen in "My Tutor, Tutor." She and Justin dated briefly until she had to move on to her next student, in which he later finds out she's an elf, which is why he was so drawn to her, as everybody loves elves. He found it odd that she was good friends with Alex.

London Tipton

Justin met London in the crossover after Justin wins a trip on the S.S. Tipton for an essay he wrote. Justin tries to impress her by pretending to be a doctor, and they go out. When Bailey starts choking, London dumps Justin, still thinking he's a doctor, for not helping her. Justin hypothetically asks her if she would still like him if he was who he really is, which London (in her usual airheaded fashion) thinks he is referring to Justin Russo, whom she believes just looks like "Doctor" and she decides to ask out Justin.

Juliet Van Heusen

Justin-juliet

Justin and Juliet

In Wizards vs. Vampires On Waverly Place, when trying to get information about the Van Heusen's new sandwich shop he meets Juliet, whom he discovers is a vampire. They go on a date during Justin's twenty-five-minute break just to see the trailers at the cinema and have a large popcorn. They quickly fall in love, but their parents don't accept them because of their rivalry in business. In the end, the Russo's and Van Heusen's accept it reasonably so their children can be happy. Soon enough, Justin gets the job of monster hunting, and embarks on a journey with Juliet to capture a mummy. They then get trapped in an exhibit overnight, and to save Juliet from the coming sunlight that will destroy her, she decides to become a minion to escape while she leaves him behind. He vows that he will find her. In "Wizards vs Werewolves" Justin finally tracks down Juliet, with the help of Mason, Alex's new werewolf boyfriend. After saving her, it is revealed that Mason and Juliet were a couple three hundred years ago. Mason impulsively declares his undying love for Juliet, causing a distraught Alex to break up with him. Later, Mason tries to convince Alex that he truly loves her, not Juliet, with the help of the love necklace which Alex threw away. Justin, Juliet, and Max pursue them to Transylvania and Justin, trying to protect his little sister, refuses to let Mason near Alex. This results in Mason fighting Justin to get to Alex. Juliet attacks Mason to defend Justin and during their fight, Juliet bites Mason and Mason scratches Juliet. This reveals that when a werewolf scratches a vampire, the vampire loses their vampire powers and physically reverts to their natural age. Juliet reveals her natural age of 2,193 years and becomes a decrepit old lady. She tells Justin that even though they love each other they can't be together now, and she crawls away into the forest, leaving Justin heartbroken. In "Moving On" Juliet observes as Justin finally begins to move on from her with a new girl. In "Wizards vs. Everything" it's revealed that Gorog transformed Juliet back to her usual teenaged form, and uses her to get Justin to work with him and not against him. After Justin, Alex, and Max destroy Gorog, Juliet and Justin finally reunite. In the finale, Juliet attends the family wizard competition and cheers for Justin to win. Once he emerges first she tells him how proud she is of him.

Harper Finkle

Harper has always had an obvious crush on Justin. However, with Baby Cupid's arrow, Max hits Justin accidentally, making him obsessed with Harper to the point where even she found it uncomfortable. Harper and Justin became close in "Justin's New Girlfriend" when Max thinks they are going out. They get stuck in a silent movie, which Alex hates, but in the end, Harper and Justin decide to be friends. Harper is known to be very jealous and threatened by any of Justin's girlfriends or any girl he likes, especially Juliet. However, she eventually grows to accept Justin's relationship with Juliet, and often erroneously considers herself as Justin's ex-girlfriend. She later begins a relationship with Justin's best friend, Zeke. The two have since become good friends.

Sarah

In "Moving On" Sarah flirts with Justin, but he is still grieving over the loss of his true love, Juliet. At the end of the episode, when he finally moves on, Sarah becomes his new love interest as they go on a romantic picnic which Juliet happily observes.

Rosie

Everything's rosie justin

In the episode "Everything's Rosie For Justin" Rosie enters Justin's delinquent class as they near a huge test that could get Justin and Alex back into the wizard competition. It is revealed that she is a terrible wizard and Alex gets Justin to kick her out of the class, despite the fact that Justin has a large crush on her and doesn't want to hurt her. Rosie comes back and gains Alex's sympathy; Alex does the copycat spell so that they can pass the test. It backfires when Alex gets the squirrel-frog on her robes and throws them off, causing Rosie to do the same and reveal she is an angel, not a wizard. She then apologizes to everyone, saying that she had only wished to meet Justin and see what he thought of her as a person. They begin a relationship, but instead of influencing him to do good she does the exact opposite, and he becomes a horrible person. Alex finds out that Rosie is an Angel of Darkness, not a Guardian Angel, and Rosie confirms it to Justin. Justin becomes an Angel of Darkness and breaks his wand so he can be with Rosie, but she wants him to leave before he's killed. He wants to stay for her so they can be together forever like she had said. Rosie tells Alex that she has fallen in love with Justin. Justin says they can't be together anymore because Rosie has to protect the world. Justin becomes a wizard again, and Rosie becomes a Guardian Angel again.

Key Episodes

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Trivia

  • Justin was correct when he said that he will win the Russo Family Wizard Competition, and keep his powers. He passed the role of the family wizard to Alex.
  • In the episode "Alex Tells the World" Justin and Alex were demoted to level 1 in their family wizard's competition; Justin was at level 5 before this. To regain his lost points, he begins to tutor Wiz-Tech's delinquent wizards in "Alex Gives Up."
    Wizard-waverly-place-movie4
  • It should be noted that Justin is quite unlucky; he normally ends up being the worst off at the end of each story, having only bested Alex a few times. Sometimes, he loses even when no one tries to make him lose (e.g., Captain Jim Bob Sherwood). When it comes to romance, the only times he has ever found true love, he has been forced to part with them, although he was reunited with Juliet in "Wizards vs. Everything."
  • His favorite color is green.
  • Justin is one of two main characters of the principal cast to appear in every episode until he was absent in the series finale episode The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex.
  • He and Alex are the only two of the Russo trio to keep their powers, Alex becoming the family wizard and Justin becoming a full wizard due to becoming the new Headmaster of WizTech.
  • Justin is like his father Jerry, Alex is like her aunt Megan, and Max is like his uncle Kelbo in terms of personality, although Justin would likely give his magical powers to Alex instead of Max if he were to marry a mortal.
  • He is allergic to cinnamon and flowers.
  • Due to the fact that he believes in aliens, and would likely give up his wizardry for them, he became a member of the Alien Language League.
  • Perhaps in terms of his bad luck, Justin's the only child in the Russo trio to be forgotten by his parents, Theresa and Jerry, twice. Once in Justin's Little Sister and then in the movie respectively, to which both times are caused by Alex in some ways.
  • Justin is 5'11, making him the tallest main character on the show.
  • It is possible he married Juliet a few years after the finale.
  • According to Alex, with the WizTech robe and glasses, he looked like someone (Harry Potter), but she forgot the name of the person.
  • Justin spent 8 years without eating pizza because he thought the pizza delivery guy let his old dog, Willy, run away.
  • In the original script "The Amazing O'Malley's" Justin's name was Jordan and was the twin of Julia (Alex's original character name).

Gallery

This gallery has 3 randomly chosen pictures of Justin Russo, for a complete gallery click here

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