Turning the page! After last season’s big Camelot theme, how can ABC’s Once Upon a Time top itself in its Sunday, September 25, premiere? We wanted to know, so we cracked open the book on Storybrooke and got the inside scoop about the hit fairy tale show’s upcoming sixth season. Read on!
Setting
One of the most important elements of a fairy tale is its setting. They’ve been to Neverland, Camelot and even hell, but this time around, our characters are back in their cozy Maine town. Storybrooke may not be the characters’ real home, but it’s homey enough for viewers, even if there are a few unexpected guests.
New Characters Are Part of Their World
Another big part of any successful story is its cast of characters, and no one knows that better than the creators of Once Upon a Time. After all, they gave each of their main characters two very different lives! Like we said, there are some new faces popping up around Storybrooke this year. The Count of Monte Cristo (Craig Horner), Captain Nemo (Faran Tahir) and Morpheus (Giles Matthey) will all be making appearances, as will Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz), Jasmine (Karen David) and, yes, Jafar (Oded Fehr).
There will be the usual familiar faces too! Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard (Ginnifer Goodwin), Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), Prince Charming/David Nolan (Josh Dallas) and the Evil Queen/Regina Mills (Lana Parrilla) will all be back for season 6.
Plot
If you’ll recall, season 5 ended with Mr. Hyde (Sam Witwer) getting control of Storybrooke and bringing his crew from the Land of Untold Stories along with him. The new characters primarily hail from that land, and much of the focus of the new season will be on, well, telling the untold stories!
Beyond that, as Entertainment Weekly reported, Emma is going to discover a secret that will change her life and the lives of everyone around her. Her friends and family will try to help her, but they’re already going to be pretty busy, considering the characters from the Land of the Untold Stories will bring some major complications when it comes to their own unfinished tales!
Luckily, it appears that things will continue heating up for her and Hook (Colin O’Donoghue), as seen in the season 6 premiere sneak peek above.
Heroes and Villains
Not much is known about the new characters. Are they friends? Are they interlopers? Snow White’s grandson, Henry (Jared S. Gilmore), vows to help them tell their untold stories, but whether they’ll be appreciative remains to be seen.
We do know a little bit about one of the show’s standard villains. When Regina separated herself from the Evil Queen half of her personality at the end of the previous season, the Evil Queen didn’t die. Now, the two halves of the character will do battle throughout season 6. If you thought the Evil Queen was a ruthless terror before, you haven’t seen anything yet!
Theme
Regina isn’t the only one battling internal demons in the new season, either. In an interview with TV Line, show creator Eddy Kitsis explained that the season is “about the duality of ourselves.”
Cocreator Adam Horowitz backed him up, saying, “What we really want to explore is who we are, and what are the conflicting things within ourselves that make us who we are.… With each and every one of our characters, we want to have that theme hit in a way where we say, ‘OK, who are these people? What are the conflicting parts of themselves?’ And that goes to one of the cores of the show, which is good and evil, and ‘happy endings’ aren’t what they seem in these fairy tales.”
Happy Ending?
If happy endings “aren’t what they seem,” according to Horowitz, does that mean our characters won’t get one?! There are plenty of ways for season 6 to turn out horribly wrong. Like, what’s the fate for the baby boy of Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) and Belle (Emilie de Ravin)? Still, the expert storytellers behind Once Upon a Time always know how to weave in the touching and funny moments, so even if fans also have to deal with some heartbreaking scenes, we know this season will be one for the (story)books.
Tell Us: What are you most excited for in season 6?
Once Upon a Time airs on ABC Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
