Wizards Beyond Waverly Place understands plenty of the themes of the original series. The importance of family, or found family, the fun and joy of magic, and the question of where one fits in. But, for as much as the sequel series may understand some elements of the foundation of what Wizards of Waverly Place had been, it did not understand its lore, nor has it truly answered significant questions it poses about Justin's life in between the series finale of Wizards of Waverly Place and the premiere of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place. When the sequel show picks up, the audience is re-introduced to Justin on his 34th birthday, and upon hearing Justin's age, nearly everything about the timeline is thrown into chaos, which only grows worse as season one continues.
When Wizards of Waverly Place began in its first season, Justin was sixteen years old, and given the two-year age gap between Alex and Justin, that means that Justin has to be at least nineteen when the Russo siblings compete in the Wizard Competition. He may have even been twenty years old, given the brief season four arc where Alex and Harper move into their own apartment, which they would need to be eighteen to do. But, in the event that Justin was nineteen when Wizards of Waverly Place ended, which he needed to be in order for the show's math to work, it then places the unfolding of Justin's life far too close together as the series does not work to actually explain the unfolding of events.
At first, the idea that Justin was thirty-four years old with a twelve-year-old son was not the most impossible concept. It allows for some, but still quite small, wiggle room for the massive events in Justin's life to unfold before he met Giada and later had Roman. However, a recent episode of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place adds in the completely unnecessary detail that Justin and Giada are celebrating their fifteenth wedding anniversary. This detail throws Justin's life timeline into complete and utter disarray for no reason because it relies entirely on a construct of time to be completely impossible.
In the event that Justin and Giada have been married for fifteen years, that means Justin was only Headmaster of Wiztech for one year before the unicorn incident threw his life completely off track. Within the next few months at most, Justin gives up magic, breaks up with Juliet, and then meets and marries Giada. As a teenager, Justin admitted to falling in love too fast, but this is just pushing it, especially when thinking about longtime Wizards of Waverly Place fans who remember that it took Justin a long time to get over Juliet and when she re-appeared in his life again in season four, it became clear that he was quickly taken up with her again. Besides, this time, not only would he be grieving the end of a relationship, but he was also grieving his own self-worth and choosing to step away from magic.
The events unfolding here are significantly faster than what occurred only a few years previously in Justin's life at that point. So, what was the time difference between Justin breaking up with Juliet and meeting Giada? Billie and Roman's adventure into Justin's mind also asks questions about how Justin's firing truly came about if they were able to spot the blank in Justin's memory. What really happened after the unicorn incident due to Justin's memory skipping to directly being fired? Did no one question this being odd? Between the three Russo siblings, they had plenty of relationships with other wizards. Had no one stepped up for Justin and tried to reference his almost inability to make a mistake that could get him in serious trouble?
The dialogue also, at times, does not even back up the timeline it is trying so hard to justify. Justin is shocked to discover Giada is good at poker, only for her to respond that she used it in college to hustle other students, which helped prevent her from having any leftover student debt. While a nice detail to Giada's character and her backstory, assuming she and Justin are about the same age and Giada is not a few years older, how could Justin not have known this if they met at nineteen?
Still, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place has not answered what may be the most important question about Justin. Professor Crumbs had given Justin full powers for the specific reason of becoming Headmaster of Wiztech. Given Justin's firing from Wiztech and later choosing to marry a mortal, how were Justin's powers not stripped from him? Wizards of Waverly Place had been very specific about the lore of magic, all tuned into the help portray the significance of love and family.
Jerry had been the family wizard but had given it up to marry Theresa, the mortal love of his life. He had not had a choice. It was a requirement of the wizard world. When Alex decides to quit the Wizard Competition and just be with Mason, the Wizard Council immediately informs Alex that a mortal can not be in a relationship with a werewolf, as it poses a safety risk. Why is Justin the exception to the rule? Even the events of Wizards of Waverly Place do not back up the decision to allow Justin to keep his powers.
The dynamic between Alex and Justin was something that Professor Crumbs had recognized in season one, allowing them both magic to grow up training together in the decision that they made each other better wizards. It is a sweet and sentimental moment, but not one that works anymore as adults, especially when it was determined that Justin had chosen not to use the magic he had access to of his own free will. In Wizards of Waverly Place, even if Justin or Jerry had to step in to help Alex fix big mistakes, it was ultimately Alex making the big world-saving moves, such as shutting down Gorog's plans with the Moral Compass or being the one who says they should stay behind to destroy the asteroid headed for Earth. Alex was even the one to win the Wizard Competition in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, proving that she was the better wizard than Justin.
Justin, for as smart and academically bright as he was and as helpful to Alex as he could be, was never shown to be someone worthy of having all the rules broken for him. There was never anything in either show that suggests Justin was allowed to keep his magic because he was just that great of a wizard. In fact, even though Justin did not commit the unicorn incident and was framed for it, apparently, no one believed in Justin's abilities enough to question how he could make such a big mistake. In the show's portrayal, no one is there to speak to Justin's credibility, begin an investigation into what happened, or offer him another chance.
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place sets itself up for questions it never answers, which is one of the show's biggest issues in season one so far. Relying on the idea that Justin's life unravels so quickly after the Wizards of Waverly Place series finale also opens the door to asking questions about how Justin emotionally handled so much simultaneously. While new fans with no connection to the original series may not know or care for how the sequel series glosses over Justin's history, such small details as these are massive plot holes for longtime fans of the originalWizards of Waverly Place.