Trivia / Once Upon a Time

• Ability over Appearance:
  • Creators said as much about Merrin Dungey's casting as Ursula from The Little Mermaid, as she does not resemble the character much. But they were inspired to cast her because of her performance in Alias.
  • Likewise JoAnna Garcia Swisher is a full eighteen years older than Disney's Ariel, being 33 when she first played her. But it's hard to imagine an actress who can capture Ariel's optimism, clumsiness and quirky attitude in live-action better than she can.
  • To a lesser extent, Sarah Bolger looks nothing like Disney's Princess Aurora but her performance was very well received.
  • Caroline Morahan is far too young and pretty to be Brave's Queen Elinor but turns in a spirited and heartwarming performance nonetheless.
  • According to Rebecca Mader, she expected to do an American accent to play Zelena — since the Wicked Witch comes from an American fairy tale. But the creators insisted on using her natural accent (although this may be an example of another trope), and she was the first choice for the role. Conversely, Bo Beep (who appears in Season 4's "White Out") has an English accent but was played by American actress Robin Weigert.
• Acting in the Dark:
  • Christie Laing, who plays Marian, didn't know that Marian was actually Zelena in disguise in Season 4 until "Heart of Gold".
  • Eion Bailey auditioned for August pretty much knowing only what was in the script for his first appearance. He joked that the creators went to great lengths to hide the twist that he was really Pinocchio for as long as they could from him.
  • Colin O'Donoghue had no idea Hook was a second Dark One for the first half of Season 5. Quite justified in this case as Hook didn't know either.
  • According to Robert Carlyle in a DVD commentary, he and Robbie Kay were the only actors told that Peter Pan was Rumple's father until the episode when it was revealed. Robbie Kay said in a panel in 2020 that he didn't know until the third episode he appeared in either.
  • The casting call for Tinker Bell was under the name 'Violet', so Rose McIver didn't know she was auditioning for Tinker Bell until she was cast.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Josh Dallas has a real scar on his chin that the writers included in his and Snow's backstory. In the original timeline, she gives it to him by hitting him in the face with a rock; in the post-Season 3 finale timeline, she hits him with a jewelry box.
  • Elizabeth Mitchell suggested that Ingrid be barefoot, as she found it hard to walk in the woods while wearing high heels.
  • Jamie Chung claims that she and Sarah Bolger read Mulan and Aurora's scenes as if they were lovers, picking up on the Les Yay between them. The show then revealed that Mulan nursed an unrequited crush for Aurora.
  • Cruella's habit of flirting with everyone was Victoria Smurfit's idea.
  • David Anders used an English sounding accent for his true identity Dr. Frankenstein — feeling the character's dialogue didn't work with his normal voice.
• Actor-Inspired Heroism:
  • Regina is presented as a straight-up Wicked Stepmother in the first season — who gets the occasional Pet the Dog moment with Henry. Lana Parrilla pushed for Henry to become a proper Morality Pet for Regina, which led to her Heel–Face Turn in the third season.
  • Zelena too was one villain presented as irredeemably evil. But Rebecca Mader and her geeky Adorkable nature — and sheer love of being on the show — led to Zelena eventually getting redeemed too.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • Due to how little the final film bore to the source material, many fans of Frozen had theorized that Andersen's Snow Queen existed in the Frozen-verse as a separate entity than Elsa, another fan theory being that Elsa's powers were tied back to the former. Once appears to be going with an idea similar to this, with Elizabeth Mitchell portraying the Snow Queen as a separate character from Georgina Haig's Elsa. Both theories were ultimately used, with the Snow Queen turning out to be Elsa's aunt.
  • Since Season 2, a lot of fans speculated that if Rumplestiltskin had stood up for himself and dueled Hook for Milah back in the day, Hook would have given Milah back and not run off with her. It wasn't until the mid-Season 5 episode "Broken Heart" that the writers finally turned fan speculation into canon by having Dark Hook admit that if Gold had actually fought him back in the day, he would have given him his wife back.
• Author's Saving Throw: Fans were hugely upset over how Robin Hood became Deader than Dead while in the same episode, Hook was revived through a literal Deus ex Machina. In an interview afterwords, the Word of God stated that they choose to believe that Hades was lying about what the Olympian Crystal does to your soul and that Robin Hood is in the better place now, hinting he wasn't truly Deader than Dead. The premiere of Series 6 has Henry and Regina decide to believe the same thing, and the mid-season premiere heavily hints at them being correct, with the implication that Wish-Realm!Robin contains some portion of Real!Robin's soul. The series finale would flat-out confirm that Robin's soul survived, as we see it visit Regina in a vision that leaves his trademark red feather behind afterward.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • David Anders signed on when he was told he was actually playing Dr. Frankenstein.
  • Rebecca Mader was a huge fan of the show and claims she screamed in public when she was offered a role. She agreed before she even knew which role it was.
  • Merrin Dungey likewise immediately agreed to move to Vancouver to film and dye her hair blonde, as she had been a big fan of The Little Mermaid — and jumped at the chance to play Ursula.
  • Georgina Haig had a reaction like this to being cast as Elsa. She describes walking around in the costume as "like being Santa Claus".
• Billing Displacement:
  • Although Raphael Sbarge as Archie/Jiminy is credited among the regular cast in Season 1, he actually appears in less than half of the first season's 22 episodes (9 in all, sometimes briefly and in one episode only as a Voice Actor). He's demoted in Season 2.
  • In Season 2, there are several episodes in which lead cast members are credited, yet either do not appear or, if they do turn up, only do so for a few moments. This is most notable with Meghan Ory, who plays Red/Ruby, whose character was promoted to main cast for the second series, but after completing a major backstory arc mid-season is reduced to cameo appearances in occasional episodes thereafter and ultimately disappears from the series, without fanfare, several episodes prior to the season finale. Despite this, Ory remains credited among the main cast to the end of the season; in real life, the writers wrote Red/Ruby out of the series in part, according to interviews with Ory, due to them deciding to focus on other characters and in part due to Ory being cast in another series.
  • Season 3 has Michael Raymond-James (Neal). After the first half, his appearances became significantly more scarce, culminating in his character's death, and yet he remained part of the main cast all the way to the end of the season.
  • Michael Socha in Season 4. Though he appears in just barely enough episodes to qualify putting his name in the credits, his screentime is drastically limited to the point that Emilie de Ravin looks downright punctual by comparison. Will has no storyline of his own, almost no role in anybody else's storyline whatsoever, no centric episodes, and even the barest minimum role in the long-awaited flashback episode for Robin Hood, the character most directly tied to his backstory.
  • Sean Maguire in Season 5, particularly 5B where Robin Hood barely showed up or had any lines. And just like Neal, he died. He is also the only person credited as a main cast member to not get a centric episode or character arc in either half of the season. (While it would have awkward to say the least, considering his relationship with Regina and that the real one never got to find out about this, at the very least Marian could have appeared there—surely she had Unfinished Business?)
  • Emilie de Ravin spends most of Season 5B not appearing or under a Sleeping Curse. There is a reason though; she was pregnant.
• California Doubling: This show is set in Maine, on the East Coast, but is filmed in Steveston, British Columbia, with principal photography in Vancouver. The ocean is all too often on the wrong side of town.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: The Shadow, for his one speaking appearance, is voiced by Marilyn Manson.
  • Roger Daltrey as The Caterpillar- largely so he can say, "Who are you?"
• Corpsing: Eion Bailey (August) is seen visibly laughing during Ruby's and Granny's spat. The writers cut to him in the final shot as a Throw It In!.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Robert Carlyle hated that Neal was killed off, feeling Rumple's character lost his main motivations afterwards.
  • Amy Manson not-so-subtly retweeted a couple of fan tweets complaining about the Season 5 winter finale where all her scenes were cut.
  • Elliot Knight also retweeted fan tweets that expressed disappointment in his character being so abruptly and unceremoniously killed off.
  • Ginnifer Goodwin has also subtly hinted on more than one occasion that she's not happy with the direction Snow's character went.
  • Jennifer Morrison has publicly disagreed with the producers' character interpretations on several occasions, most notably saying that Emma taking the darkness into herself was about saving the whole town, rather than just Regina.
  • Michael Socha has been quite vocal that he didn't enjoy his time on the show because even though he was contracted for a full season he really didn't do anything while he was on set.
  • Sean Maguire also expressed his frustration with the lack of closure following Robin Hood being unceremoniously killed off. However, after talks with the creators, Sean felt content enough to return to the show and wrap things up.
• Creator-Chosen Casting: Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Carlyle and Merrin Dungey (and probably others) were Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz's first choices for their respective roles.
• Creator's Favorite: Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz reportedly said that Regina was their favorite character.
• The Danza: Young Princess Eva is played by Eva Allen (credited as Eva Bourne).
• Dawson Casting: Common where the younger versions of characters in the flashback sequences are played by the same actor, but there are also some completely straight examples.
  • Especially notable in "Tallahassee" which features Jennifer Morrison and Michael Raymond-James as the teenaged versions of Emma and Neal. By the time Season 3 came around, Jennifer Morrison was too old to convincingly play Emma as a teen, and so Abby Ross was cast to make this slightly better.
  • Elsa is 23 years old and is portrayed by 29-year-old Georgina Haig. This is just slightly less egregious than Frozen, where a 21-year-old Elsa is voiced by 42-year-old Idina Menzel.
  • Whilst played straight in Frozen (where a then-18 years old Anna is voiced by a 33-year-old Kristen Bell), OUAT makes it a minor trope, since Anna is 20 years old and is played by a 22-year-old Elizabeth Lail.
  • Kristoff is 23 and portrayed by a 29-year-old Scott Michael Foster.
  • Nicole Muñoz was twenty when she played Lily at 16. And since the show is a little vague on how much time has passed since the first episode, the adult Lily is this too. There's a six-year age gap between Agnes Bruckner and Jennifer Morrison, despite their characters supposedly being the same age.
  • Ruby is implied to be late teens or early twenties. Meghan Ory was nearly thirty when she first played her.
  • Peter Pan's age is vague, but he's meant to be an eternal little boy. Robbie Kay was eighteen.
  • Freya Tingley was nineteen when she played Wendy Darling, who is supposed to be around 12-14.
  • Cora's younger self is played by Rose McGowan, who had just turned forty. Her age isn't stated in the flashbacks but is implied to be very early twenties at the latest.
• Defictionalization: The exterior shots of Storybrooke's main street are filmed on a real road in British Columbia. The signs on certain shops are covered with a Storybrooke equivalent during filming and removed afterwards. However, some shop owners let the production company keep the signs up permanently, partially due to this trope and partially to make less work for the film crew (to erect and tear down the signs every week). The producers also leased two units just for the storefronts. These are kept the same year-round since they were never real shops in the first place.
• Deleted Scene: The Season 5 winter finale featured a scene wrapping up the loose ends of the Camelot storyline, but it was ultimately cut from the episode.
• Development Gag: In "Snow Falls", Mary Margaret tells Emma, "I'm a teacher, not a nun." In the original pilot script, Mary Margaret was actually a nun.
• Directed by Cast Member: Lana Parrilla (Regina) directed Season 7 episode "Chosen".
• Dueling Shows: Was initially this with Grimm, an NBC show that debuted around the same time that also focuses on fairytale characters existing in the real world. It soon became clear both shows were going in different directions. Grimm focuses on more obscure characters and creatures from the many, many lesser-known Grimm fairytales, as opposed to the more famous and iconic ones in Once, and Grimm is a Monster of the Week horror-procedural show while Once is a Supernatural Soap Opera.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • For Belle's three Season 1 appearances, blonde Emilie de Ravin just wore a wig. When she was upgraded to regular in Season 2, she dyed her hair brown. When she became pregnant in Season 5, she reverted to blonde and just wore wigs.
  • Jennifer Morrison had been dyeing her hair brown for House. Fed up at having to spend so much time getting it dyed, she reverted to blonde to play Emma.
  • Elizabeth Lail darkened her blonde hair to red to play Anna.
  • Agnes Bruckner darkened her blonde hair to brown to play Lily.
  • Merrin Dungey dyed her hair blonde for Ursula.
• Fake American:
  • Sarah Bolger (Princess Aurora) is Irish. Ironically Mary Costa, who voiced the Disney version, was American as a Fake Brit.
  • Georgina Haig (Elsa) is Australian.
  • Tim Phillips (Prince Thomas) is Australian.
  • Alan Dale (King George) is from New Zealand.
  • Nicole Muñoz (Young Lily) is Canadian. Notably her adult self Agnes Bruckner is American.
  • Adelaide Kane (Ivy Belfrey/Drizella) is Australian.
  • Dorothy Gale is a Kansas native played by Matreya Scarrwener — who is Canadian. Her second actress Teri Reeves is American however.
  • Nathan Parsons (Jack/Nick Branson) is Australian.
• Fake Brit:
  • Cruella and Hook are both played by Irish actors — Victoria Smurfit and Colin O'Donoghue — doing English accents.
  • Cruella's mother and Hook's brother are played by Australians — Anna Galvin and Bernard Curry — doing English accents.
  • James Immekus (American) as Michael, and Freya Tingley (Australian) as Wendy.
  • Robin Weigert (American) as Bo Peep.
  • Karen David (Jasmine) is borderline, as she's Indian-born but raised in Canada and has been based in the UK for several years.
  • Elizabeth Blackmore (Australian) as Mary Lydgate.
  • Hank Harris (American) as Dr. Jekyll.
  • Sam Witwer (American) as Dr. Hyde.
• Fake Mixed Race: Lana Parrilla's father is Puerto Rican and her mother is Italian, and she identifies as Latina. Her character Regina has a Latino father (played by Tony Perez) and white mother (played by Barbara Hershey).
• Fake Nationality:
  • Mulan is (kinda-sorta) Chinese, but Jamie Chung is of Korean descent.
  • The Genie is from Arabian folklore but played by the half-black, half-Italian Giancarlo Esposito.
  • Belle is from a French fairy tale played by Emilie de Ravin, who is Australian, albeit of French descent but keeping her Australian accent. Belle was also voiced by the American Paige O'Hara in the Disney movie.
• Fake Scot:
  • Merida's parents are both played by Irish actors. The other people from Dun Broch are likewise played by local Canadian actors. Averted only with Merida — played by Scottish actress Amy Manson — and with Macintosh — played by Scottish actor Paul Telfer.
  • English actor Stephen Lord puts on a Scottish accent to play Rumple's father Malcolm.
  • Likewise, young Rumple is played by American Wyatt Oleff.
• Fan Community Nicknames:
  • Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold's fans are called Dearies. So named by Robert Carlyle himself.
  • The Queen's fans are called Evil Regals, Snow White's are the Fairest, the Seven Dwarves' are Team 7, Prince Charming's are Charmers, Ruby's are Little Reds, Belle's are Beauties, and Emma's fans are called "Ugly Ducklings".
  • Captain Hook's fans are named "Hookers".
  • In terms of shipping. Those who ship the popular fanon ship, Emma/Regina, are often referred to by the themselves and others as "Swen".
  • "Rumbellers" are fans of the Rumplestiltskin/Belle ship.
  • "Snowings" are fans of the Snow White/Charming ship.
  • "Mad Swanners" are fans of the Emma/Jefferson ship.
• Friday Night Death Slot Season 7 had some of the lowest ratings and it’s not that hard to see why. There are some in the fandom who continue to be utterly baffled as to why ABC decided to air Season 7 on Friday nights instead of the Sunday night time slot the first six seasons held.
• Friendship on the Set:
  • Jennifer Morrison became good friends with the people who played her parents on the show, Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas, to the point that the three even jointly dressed as the main trio from Harry Potter one Halloween. Jennifer also became incredibly close friends with Colin O'Donoghue, which helped their chemistry as lovers on-screen.
  • Lana Parrilla and Jared S. Gilmore became incredibly close during the filming of the show. Jared even once described their off-screen dynamic as very similar to their characters' on-screen one and said that Lana was a second mother to him. Lana also grew close to the actress who plays her sister, Rebecca Mader, and the two often call each other their best friend.
  • Sean Maguire and Robbie Kay ironically didn't appear on-screen together, but they ended up becoming close friends simply through doing convention panels together. At one point, the former announced that he was adopting him as a joke. He also became close with Rebecca Mader, and the two did a podcast together during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Hide Your Pregnancy:
  • Snow White becomes pregnant midway through Season 3 to accommodate Ginnifer Goodwin's real-life pregnancy. But in the episodes before this is revealed, you can see the familiar tricks of her wearing big coats and loose tops. The Season 3 finale, after she's given birth, features time travel to the events of a Season 1 episode. It's obvious when they switch from archive footage to newly shot stuff, as Snow gains a double chin. Luckily she was already wearing a long black cloak in the episode.
  • Emilie de Ravin's pregnancy was also written into Season 5. But flashbacks in Belle's episodes shoot her from the chest up. She also willingly undergoes a sleeping curse to allow Emilie to hide the bump and allow for a Time Skip.
  • Ginnifer Goodwin was also pregnant a second time in Season 5. They kept Snow in big coats and wrote her out of the storyline temporarily to hide it.
• Irony as She Is Cast: JoAnna Garcia Swisher (Ariel) cannot swim in real life. Which probably explains why Ariel is only seen in the water and not actually swimming.
• The Other Darrin:
  • It seems to be intentional. In Season 1, the Queen of Hearts is played (under a veil) by Jennifer Koenig. In Season 2, she's played by Barbara Hershey when she's revealed to be Cora. It should be noted that even when she was played by Jennifer Koenig, Barbara Hershey supplied the voice, which was hard to make out due to her speaking only in whispers.
  • In his first appearance, "Skin Deep" in Season 1, Gaston is played by Sage Brocklebank. In his second, "Her Handsome Hero" in Season 5, he's played by Wes Brown, and the "previously on" flashbacks have Brown inserted into the scenes from "Skin Deep".
  • In Season 3, Sean Maguire replaces Tom Ellis in the role of Robin Hood. It's later justified when a flashback taking place before his first appearance shows Robin stealing a glamour charm from Zelena and using it to hide from Rumple, whom he double-crossed. He says that the charm will make him appear to be someone else in the eyes of his enemies, so Rumple doesn't recognize him when they meet next.
  • In Season 4, Merrin Dungey replaces Yvette Nicole Brown in the role of Ursula after the latter had voiced her in one episode of Season 3. Possibly subverted when the episode "Poor Unfortunate Soul" reveals that the sea witch Ursula is a separate character from and was named after the goddess Ursula. It's unclear whether Brown's character was really the goddess or just the sea witch acting through her statue.
  • In Season 6, Oded Fehr replaces Naveen Andrews (who portrayed the character in Once Upon a Time in Wonderland; scheduling conflicts with Sense8 prevented him from reprising the role) as Jafar.
• The Other Marty: Paula Marshall was first cast as Maleficent, but was later replaced by Kristin Bauer.
• The Pete Best: Sean Maguire is best remembered as Robin Hood than Tom Ellis.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Jamie Chung is normally known for playing Asian Airhead roles. Mulan is The Stoic in this version, making it a very different role for her. Notably Mulan's characterization in the movie would have been within type for her.
  • Graham was retroactively this for Jamie Dornan — who tends to be a Villain Protagonist or at least a morally questionable character. Graham is probably the most heroic role he's ever played.
  • It's quite a change for Rose McGowan — who is synonymous with Perky Goths and Deadpan Snarkers — to play Cora's younger self.
  • Considering that Richard Schiff is probably most famous for playing the eternally frustrated, Hair-Trigger Temper, Jerk with a Heart of Gold speechwriter Toby Ziegler on The West Wing, watching him act as a benevolent, soft-voiced king is jarring, to say the least.
• Playing with Character Type:
  • Rose McIver usually plays women with tragic backstories, or who have gone through Break the Cutie in some way. Tinker Bell is similar but recovers from her damage and reverts to The Cutie pretty quickly.
  • Robert Carlyle often plays the Butt-Monkey of the story. Rumple starts out like that, but grows to resent his status as such, and becomes the Dark One to pull off a Who's Laughing Now?.
• Post-Script Season: The show had a wonderful plot conclusion at the end of Season 6, with all the plot threads closed — Rumplestitskin/Mr Gold preferring his family over his Dark One powers, Regina finally being recognized and loved as Queen/Mayor, Mary Margaret and David finally living together on a farm, Emma and Hook happily married and raising Henry with Regina, everybody resuming their normal lives and dining at Granny's every night — but opening a new story 20 Minutes into the Future with Henry's daughter looking for an adult Henry who doesn't remember anything about Storybrooke. Thus we got Season 7, which turned out to be the show's last season and as a consequence has very little connection to anything that came before it.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Ginnifer Goodwin has said that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was her favourite Disney film as a child. Other cast members have said just how much like Snow White she is in real life too. She even shows off her Disney knowledge in the DVD audio commentary.
  • Rebecca Mader was a huge fan of the show and had hoped to be asked to play Ariel. She claims she screamed in public when she was offered the part of Zelena.
  • In the Season 7 Cast Goodbyes special, Dania Ramirez called herself "a huge fan of the show" prior to being cast as Cinderella.
• Prop Recycling:
  • The Jolly Roger is also the Interceptor and the Enterprise.
  • The compass that Hook and Emma steal from the giants' castle is the same one that Gretel gets from her father in "True North".
  • A costume example would be the dress that Violet wears to her date with Henry in "Dreamcatcher". It's an altered version of one that teenage Emma wears in Snow's vision in "Best Laid Plans".
    • There's actually a lot of costumes that are recycled within the series. Here's what people have noticed so far.
• Real-Life Relative: Sort of. Sunny Mabrey (Glinda) was married to Ethan Embry (Greg) but they were separated while the show was airing. They rekindled their romance in 2015.
  • Alissa Skovbye, who plays Jefferson's daughter Grace, is the little sister of Tiera Skovbye, who plays the adult Robin in Season 7.
  • Raphael Alejandro (Roland) is the younger brother of Delila Bela (Young Guinevere).
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle:
  • Emma's hair being blonde partly came about because Jennifer Morrison, a natural blonde, had grown tired of dyeing it brown for House and saw the show as an opportunity to go back blonde. She also cut it to shoulder length around Season 5, and wore wigs and extensions for the show, which is why Emma wears her hair up a lot more in Season 6.
  • Mary Margaret having short hair in Storybrooke while Snow White has long hair in the Enchanted Forest is because Ginnifer Goodwin hated having to maintain long hair and had it written into her contract that, if a role requires long hair, she'll just wear a wig. When Snow returns in Season 7, they don't have her wear a wig because Ginnifer had decided to grow her hair out a little.
  • Emilie de Ravin is wearing a wig from Season 5 onward because she didn't want to keep dyeing her hair brown while pregnant.
  • Dr Whale has white-blonde hair when he makes a cameo in Season 5, which Zelena mocks him for, because David Anders had dyed it for ''iZombie
  • During Season 6, Robert Carlyle was also filming T2 Trainspotting. As a result, his hair and goatee were incorporated into Rumplestiltskin.
• Romance on the Set:
  • Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas married in real life. Yes, that's right, Snow White and Prince Charming fell in love.
  • Jennifer Morrison and Sebastian Stan, which is creepier than the above example when their characters' interactions are considered. They broke up in 2013.
• Role Reprise: In the Latin American Spanish dub done by Disney, Romina Marroquín Payró, Carmen Sarahí and Héctor Lama Yazbek reprised their roles as Anna, Elsa and Pabbie from their original franchise they came from.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting:
  • As has been widely publicised, Ginnifer Goodwin and Jennifer Morrison have frequently been mistaken for each other so many times. So they're a perfect fit to play mother and daughter Snow White and Emma Swan. Jennifer Morrison also shares some features with her on-screen father Josh Dallas.
  • Abby Ross, who plays Emma as a teen, has a strong resemblance to Jennifer Morrison too. As does Mckenna Grace, who plays Emma's child self.
  • There's also a very good resemblance between Lana Parrilla and Barbara Hershey, who play mother and daughter. Rose McGowan was also praised for looking uncannily like Hershey's younger self when she played the young Cora.
  • The resemblance between Ginnifer Goodwin and Bailee Madison, who plays young Snow, is also uncanny.
  • Andrew J. West makes a convincing grown up version of Jared S. Gilmore's Henry.
• Shipper on Set:
  • Ginnifer Goodwin (Snow White), Emilie de Ravin (Belle), and Michael Raymond-James (Neal/ Baelfire) all ship Swan Thief (Emma/Neal).
  • Jennifer Morrison (Emma) and Colin O'Donoghue (Hook) both ship Captain Swan (Emma/Hook).
• Spoiled by the Cast List: In the episode "Desperate Souls", there is talk of a Dark One before Rumpelstiltskin, and Brad Dourif is a guest star. It wasn't too hard to guess what his role would turn out to be.
• Star-Making Role:
  • Lana Parrilla was virtually unknown before the series. Her profile was significantly raised when she starred as Regina.
  • Merrin Dungey appears to have done quite well after starring in the show. Beforehand her credits were mostly guest spots in various TV shows. Afterwards she was part of the ensemble cast of Conviction and got a prominent role in the high profile Big Little Lies.
  • Playing Hook gave a boost to Colin O'Donoghue's career.
  • Rebecca Mader had been part of two hit shows beforehand, but getting cast as Zelena seems to have resulted in a breakthrough for her.
• Throw It In!:
  • During the Ruby/Granny fight in "Red Handed" August can be seen barely containing himself from laughing. Eion Bailey really was trying not to crack, but it was so funny the scene was added.
  • Rumple's Important Haircut in Season 6 was because Robert Carlyle had cut his hair short for Trainspotting 2.
  • David Anders had to have his hair bleached platinum blond for iZombie, so Zelena makes a snide comment about his "dye job" when he reappears in Season 5.
• Vindicated by Reruns:
  • A common occurrence through DVR ratings. Example: the first half of Season 3's Neverland arc (episodes 1-6) was a ratings success on all fronts, but the second half not so much. A rerun of its final episode, however, brought its ratings score up to standard.
  • Similarly, even though the live ratings have plummeted recently, it became one of the top shows that people rent and binge-watch on Netflix (prior to its move to Disney+.)
• What Could Have Been:
  • Apparently they wanted Lady Gaga as the Blue Fairy.
  • The Sheriff was meant to be Sherlock Holmes, and his curse in Storybrooke was that there was no mystery to solve. The plan fell through due to an issue with acquiring the rights. Not to mention the fact that there were already two Sherlocks on TV at that point in time.
  • Speaking of the Sheriff, they wanted him to return in Season 3, which fell through because Jamie Dornan was filming Fifty Shades of Grey. If they'd gotten to do it, he'd have appeared in what was described as a Peggy Sue Got Married moment in the season finale — Emma would have seen him while trapped in the past, but been unable to reach out because doing so would have wrecked the timeline.
  • Ariel and Aladdin were planned for the second season, but their appearances got "pushed back" for unknown reasons. Ariel showed up in Season 3 and Aladdin in Season 6.
  • Early drafts of the pilot episode had Charming killed off. This was changed after Josh Dallas auditioned and "blew them away" with his performance, prompting the creators to expand his role, although they later claimed that Executive Meddling made them spare him (and that they agreed with the meddling, saying the executives were right.)
  • Early drafts also had Regina with three children instead of just Henry, but the identities of the other two are not yet known.
  • The final draft of the pilot as it was sold, before the show was picked up and more changes were made, has many differences, most notably Emma being named Anna.
  • Hook was supposed to have a larger role in the second half of Season 2, but it had to undergo a major rewrite due to Colin O'Donoghue breaking his leg. The writers had to cut almost all of Hook's scenes.
  • Regina and Henry's more positive mother-son relationship from Season 2 onward is only a result of Lana Parrilla (Regina) pushing the writers for it. The same is true for Regina and Robin's relationship, somewhat... she only pushed for a romance for Regina, the choice of Robin Hood for the love interest is the writers' doing.
  • Belle was originally intended for only one episode, but she was brought back by popular demand. Similarly, Anton the Giant was originally going to only be in his nameless debut, "Tallahassee", but the staff liked him enough to bring him back and expand upon him in "Tiny" and "Lacey". Another similar case is Blackbeard, whose death in his debut, "The Jolly Roger", was later retconned because the writers really enjoyed what Charles Mesure brought to the role and thus wanted to use the character in more stories.
  • Captain Hook was originally supposed to appear in Season 1, but the writers were unable to acquire the rights to Neverland in time.
  • Dracula was considered as a character for Season 1, but they went with Dr. Frankenstein instead.
  • Ruby had more plots planned but the ever-increasing character load in Season 2 left them no way to feature her. Season 5 reintroduces her.
  • Amy Manson claims she was offered to make Merida a series regular. She declined, not wanting to move to Canada to work exclusively there.
  • Sean Maguire stated that if Season 5 had been the final season and the show not been renewed, then Robin Hood wouldn't have been killed off, since that was done to kick off a plot for Season 6.
  • Season 6 would have had an episode of Henry narrating stories from the book that tied up dangling plot threads of Mulan, Maleficent and Lily, Will Scarlet and others. Sadly, the producers couldn't get as many of the actors as they wanted and it was dropped.
  • Jennifer Morrison claims she was offered the chance to remain a series regular for Season 7. She turned it down but agreed to make a guest appearance in its second episode and then later Back for the Finale.
  • Originally, Maleficent and Lily's story was to reveal Lily's father as Zorro. Unfortunately, the writers couldn't obtain the rights to the Zorro character, despite him appearing in a Disney TV show in the late 1950s, so, instead, Regina mentions it in passing in the series finale.
• Word of God: Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz confirmed that Regina and Emma (who make up the popular fan ship "Swan Queen") are never going to get together and that the possibility of it was never even considered when asked at San Diego Comic-Con 2013.

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