Henrie also teased the Rare Beauty mogul’s upcoming appearance on ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’, telling PEOPLE their “chemistry was still there”

(L-R) David Henrie; Selena Gomez. Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic,Disney/Stewart Cook

David Henrie and Selena Gomez grew up together on the set of Wizards of Waverly Place. Now, all these years later, the pair are closer than ever.

“It’s been wonderful,” Henrie, 35, tells PEOPLE exclusively of the pair’s bond. “Despite all of her massive successes, her and I, our relationship has just withstood all that because I don’t know, we’re just real with each other.”

“We both were close before any of that stuff started. She knows I’m going to be myself with her, and I’m going to be genuine and authentic and shoot her straight,” he continues. “I think there’s a freedom to that that is tough to come by.”

Aside from maintaining close ties as friends, Henrie and Gomez, 32, are reteaming to bring back the late 2000s Disney Channel series that made them household names.

(L-R) Selena Gomez and David Henrie on Wizards of Waverly Place.Craig Sjodin/Disney Channel via Getty

In Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, premiering on Oct. 29, Justin Russo (Henrie) is now living a normal life outside of the Wizard World. However, a new challenge surfaces when his sister Alex Russo (Gomez) introduces him to Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown), a young wizard in need of Justin’s mentorship.

Though Henrie notes how “there was no plan” initially for a sequel series to be created, he says it “all happened in a really organic way.”

(L-R) Selena Gomez and David Henrie on Wizards Beyond Waverly Place.Eric McCandless/disney

“Selena and I remained very good friends from the end of the show, and I got married, she became good friends with my wife, and we would just all get together and have a glass of wine and just talk about memories,” he shares. “It always found its way to Wizards, and we would then find ourselves joking about where would the characters be, what would they be doing. And it just evolved.”

“At a certain point, I started having kids and I’m like, it’s been 17 years since we started this show. And I was like, ‘Selena, let’s have this same conversation we’re having right now without wine in front of Disney and see what happens,'” he continues. “And we did, and they liked it.”

For Henrie and Gomez, their “goal was really to create something that could be a big warm hug to the original fan, but also, hopefully, invite that original fan, like us, to want to pass this on to a whole new generation,” he says.

Ian Abercrombie, Jake T. Austin, David Henrie, Selena Gomez, Maria Canals-Barrera, and David DeLuise on ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’.Eric McCandless/Disney Channel/Getty

“It’ll be something that the original fan will feel loved and appreciated, and there’s Easter eggs and plot points and mysteries that all tie back to the first show,” he explains. “In fact, the whole first season is built on the ending of the first show. So there’s all sorts of things that tie back to the original show. But there also is a whole new cast, and Justin has kids and he’s married now, and there’s mysteries. Why doesn’t his family know about his magical abilities? What is going on?”

Henrie and Gomez also serve as executive producers on the new series. Admittedly, the father of three says of coming back, “I don’t know if we would’ve done it if we didn’t have that control.”

“We both care about it so much that we couldn’t keep our mouth shut if someone else was doing it. The whole cast feels that way,” he adds. “They come back and the characters that have come back from the original are very passionate about their characters and wanting to make sure that it’s done in a way that feels in the same spirit, and it’s been a wonderful development process, even with them when they come back. It’s been all hands on deck.”

Teasing Gomez’s appearance in the premiere episode, Henrie says, “The first scene where Justin and Alex, me and Selena, had an emotional scene together. It was like we hadn’t missed a beat.”

“It was like we continued the show from the past 13 years. It was like we hadn’t missed a beat,” he concludes. “The energy was there, the chemistry was there, the banter, the timing, it was all right there.”

Wizards Beyond Waverly Place premieres Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. ET on Disney Channel and will be available to stream on Disney+.