Max Russo


 * "I don't understand what your saying right now, I'll try the language of loving you."
 * ―Max to his cousin, Francesca in "The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex"

Maximilian Alanzo Ernesto "Max" Russo is a former wizard and the youngest of the Russo kids. Like his brother and sister, he is half Mexican from his mother, Theresa and half Italian-American from his dad, Jerry. He is portrayed by Jake T. Austin.

In the series's finale, Alex became the Russo Family Wizard and Justin a full wizard due to becoming the Headmaster of Wiz Tech. As a prize for becoming mortal, Max obtains the Sub Station which he seems very happy about.

History
Max often uses his siblings' situation to his benefit. For example, when Alex used magic to go to the The Crazy Ten Minute Sale, Max used that time to tell his dad, Jerry, that he had broken his wand. Max is shown to have a C+ in Wizard Class which makes him average. He has a few strange habits such as putting marshmallows with asparagus and he uses his mom's dress as a Darth Vader cape. In fact this unusual way of thinking allowed him to outsmart (or as Alex said "out-dumb") a genie into undoing her twisted wishes.

It is unknown if Max has lived in Waverly Place his whole life but it is known that he has Hispanic heritage from his mother's side. His mother often tries to get the kids to learn about their Latino heritage. From his father's side he inherited his wizardry skills. It is likely that he is also half Italian from his father, due to the last name Russo and the fact that Alex has stated that they are only half Latino.

It is revealed that Max likes Chinese food and pineapple in Potion Commotion.

Max is known to play soccer as Justin is seen practicing kissing on Max's soccer ball in the episode First Kiss. He also likes to make strange sandwiches (which is useful, as his parents own a sandwich shop), and he loves to eat them even more.

Max is a witty, cheeky boy, when covering for his sister he manages to get sneakers off of her for it. His shoe size is a size 5. He is quite smart and always tries to "bend situations to his benefit"; when his sister was in trouble he used the opportunity to tell his dad that he broke his wand. He did not get in much trouble as his dad was busy with his sister.

Max has little regard for safety or forethought. When reading up on the conscience spell he deliberately ignored the 'please read' notice that went with it listing the dangers, which resulted in his conscience taking on physical form. He has also shown a dark side to himself that equals or even surpasses Alex. He blatantly told his conscience that when it comes to a choice between right and wrong he prefers wrong. He would rather sabotage his brother in the contest than study, even when Alex chose to study. When Conscience tried to warn him about the dangers of summoning monsters from Justin's hand book Max completely ignored his warnings of mass chaos and danger and did so anyway.

In the Season 2, he starts to "work" for has money with his best friend Alfred. An example is in Smarty Pants, in was he puts water in bottles for sell it; and in Beware Wolf, he cared dogs.

Apparently, he has a crush with Gigi which it can see in Graphic Novel, and has his first date in Alex Does Good.

As the series progressed Max was flanderized to appear less intelligent with each passing season, though he does seem more intelligent than most give him credit for.

Maximan is a superhero that Max played in the episode "Alex's Brother, Maximan." He wore a cape with sharks on it, his underwear, long blue pants, and a yellow long sleeve shirt that with a big M on the front. His dad pretended to be a burglar, and Alex and Justin came to help Max with climbing up a wall outside of the sub station.

Personality
At 16, he is the most mischievous, determined to take his magic "to the Max." When he's not dodging homework and vegetables, Max plays practical jokes on his siblings. His first spell was "Comakus Pancakus" to conjure up a stack of pancakes.

It is very hard to tell at times if Max is eccentric, outside the box or just stupid. He takes almost everything said to him literally, often confuses the meaning of words (such as aunt and ant), doesn't seem to understand when he's being insulted even when told he is being insulted, and has been known to do some very idiotic things such as shrinking his own brain just so he can store more jelly beans in his skull. However he has been shown to be an average level student despite his intellectual shortcomings. In the season 4 premier he claimed to be acting dumber than he really was so no one would believe him if he revealed he was a wizard.

Abilities
Out of the three Max used his powers the least. He was a fun wizard and sometimes uses magic irresponsibly but on the whole, he prefers to cause havoc without magic. He lost his powers and became fully mortal in the series finale due to losing the Family Wizard Competition.

He is quite mischievous and quick to use magic in a situation, like his sister, and it often leads to disaster. However in the end he usually makes things right with his abilities and help from his siblings. It is unknown if Max is capable of using complex magic without an aid such as a wand. So far, the only wandless spells we have seen him use are "Comakus Pancakus" when he was trapped on Mars, "Cambia corporum meum corpara sua niminavi" when he switched bodies with a dance instructor, "soap on a rope, soap off a rope, rope shot out of my hand, rope tie up that man" when he tried to catch a restaurant burglar, and "Literarium Terrarium", though in the movie he used wandless magic several times.

In the episode Potion Commotion, he gets his full powers. He has to wear a horrible looking hat for four days until his powers were in control. In that episode he also uses the spell "Levitatus Liquidatus" to make a can of liquid float. It is also shown in previous episodes that he is behind in learning spells while his siblings are way ahead. For example in Potion Commotion, he is learning wizard training exercise #5 while Justin and Alex are learning lesson #372. He also tries to break set records, like in Pop Me and We Both Go Down, when his dad's trophy pulls off his underwear and runs away with it, Max says he wore those underwear for a long time, possibly a week. In the later episodes he starts to use more magic such as Pound for pound your a clown to use on Justin, which backfired and turned him into a clown), Roomius fixus (turned Alex's room to normal size), and also many more spells in My Tutor, Tutor.

Absolutely no-one, be they family, friends or anyone who knew him at all thought he would be or wanted him to be the family wizard. During Alex and Justin's trial Jerry actually used the idea of Max likely becoming the family wizard as a result of their punishment as part of the defense, which Headmaster Crums actually gave some thought to. Theresa did root for him to win, but said she was only doing it so that they could say someone rooted for him.

Despite being behind her in lessons Max is actually a better magic student than Alex, though only because she puts no effort into her work.

In the episode Three Maxes and a Little Lady, Alex and Justin turn Max into a new girl form, making his/her name Maxine Russo.

Relationships
Jennette Brocolleti (Kathryn Foley, "Alex Does Good") Max asks her out on a date and tried to impress her. But things didn't go well when Max turned into a clown during the date after trying to turn Justin into one, and made Jennette feel disturbed and repulsed by him. It's assumed that Jennette never talked to Max ever again, judging by her never appearing in another episode again.
 * Alex, Justin and Max: Trio of Russo

Nancy Lukey (Bella Thorne, "Max's Secret Girlfriend") Nancy was Max'] girlfriend, who he was keeping a secret from the rest of the family and lied to her about who he was and had a lot of things in common. When the family found out, Theresa told Max that it never was okay to lie to people. He took her advice and told Nancy that he and his family are wizards. They try to mislead her by setting up a fake magic carpet ride which Max took her on, and she ends up breaking up with him because she thinks that he kept lying to her to get her to like him.

Lisa Cucuy (Samantha Boscarino, "Alex Gives Up") She has a crush on him after seeing him on a magazine for future family wizards, and briefly dates him. However, on her parents' yacht party, she sees Mason and wants him instead, and dumps Max.

Talia Robinson (McKaley Miller, Season 4) Talia is Max's most significant relationship. When Max was turned into Maxine, he tried to take advantage of his transformation to convince Talia to date him as Max. For the school play, when the Russo's learn that Maxine is going to turn back into Max on stage in front of everyone, Jerry decides to fire the cannon to cover the transformation. Talia is very impressed and so when Max asks her out, she agrees. In "Magic Unmasked", Talia is forcing Max to do things she likes and he doesn't. Theresa is upset by this and tries to get Max out of watching a chick-flick with Talia. Max then later realizes that he truly doesn't have anything in common with Talia when Max says he loves Lucha wrestling, to which Talia responds: "No, you don't Max, it's barbaric." Max breaks up with Talia after telling her he doesn't he doesn't enjoy any of the things she wants him to. Later that day, when Max is at the wrestling match, he sees Talia and tells Max that she is sorry, and says she's having a good time at the wrestling match. As a result, Max and Talia are reunited. In the episode "Alex the Puppetmaster", Talia's parents do not approve of the Russo family. To avoid having an uncomfortable relationship with his girlfriend's family, Max uses a spell so they will meet for the first time again. The families like each other after this second "first" meeting. It is unknown if they are still together or not.

Key Episodes
Season​ 2 Seas​on 3 Sea​son 4
 * Alex's Brother, Maximan
 * Make It Happen
 * Hugh's Not Normus
 * Alex Does Good
 * Dude Looks Like Shakira
 * Max's Secret Girlfriend
 * Three Maxes and a Little Lady
 * Daddy's Little Girl (Maxine's key episode)
 * Back to Max
 * Meet The Werewolves
 * Who Will Be The Family Wizard

Trivia

 * Max takes the blame for almost anything shown in wizards unleashed
 * Max was the only one of the Russo Trio to not keep their powers, as Alex became the Russo Family Wizard and Justin became the new Headmaster of Wiz Tech thus gaining Full Wizarding Abilities.
 * Max is Kelbo, Justin is Jerry, and Alex is Megan in terms of personality. If history were to repeat itself, Max could get powers if Justin or Alex were to marry a mortal.
 * Max has (directly) killed Stevie Nichols and Gorog, two of the main antagonists of the series.
 * Max is the only Russo that didn't reveal his secret to a friend. (Nancy doesn't count as she thinks he was lying)
 * Max is shown to be quite smart, he acts dumb so if he reveals his secret people will think "Eh, he is an idiot"
 * Max fell in love with one of his own cousins, Francessca, in The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex
 * As shown in Wizards and Vampires vs. Vampires, Max has absolutely no fear.
 * Max wears a size 5 in shoes.