Yesterday, the executive producers and creators of ABC’s Once Upon A Time, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, made an appearance at the WonderCon convention in Anaheim, California, and preceding the Once panel, we were able to talk to the producers in an interview roundtable. We spoke a little bit about themes that we saw in last night’s episode, “Heart Of Darkness,” and discussed more about what we have coming in the show’s future.
At the time of the interview, “Heart Of Darkness” had not yet been seen, and thus, we didn’t know what was going to happen with Snow White’s dark side. When asked about that new aspect of Snow, Kitsis said it’s a way the audience can see what happens “when there’s a void in your heart and you try to fill it.”
“We’ve seen that with the Evil Queen throughout the season, so now we’re going to see what happens with Snow. Because magic comes with a price,” he says. “You saw that in Episode 2, when she was warned, ‘if you enact this curse, you’ll create a void in your heart that you’ll never be able to fill.’ I think if you go back and watch the series, everything she does is to try to fill that,” he continues.
On the subject of the Queen, Adam Horowitz notes that “the Evil Queen is a character with a lot of pain, and we’re going to see where a lot of that pain came from.” Some of her backstory will be explored in Once Upon A Time episode 18, which is titled “The Stable Boy.” Images from the episode were released a few days ago. As to what the episode is about, Kitsis points to a quote from “Heart Of Darkness,” where it is said that evil isn’t born; it’s made. He also promises that “Stable Boy” is “the episode where we find out why she hates Snow White.”
“We’re going to see Regina in a different way than we’ve seen her before. And, yeah. We’re seeing her in blue, and with a smile,” Horowitz adds. Barbara Hershey guest stars in the episode as Cora, the Evil Queen’s mother.
Another character who has changed over the course of the series is Jennifer Morrison’s character, Emma. What has been going on with her and is she still as tough as she was in the series pilot? “We always say she’s a character looking for home, but she’s never had one, so how does she know what that is? For the very first time, she’s let two people bring her wall down. Mary Margaret and Henry. And any time you let someone in emotionally, they can affect you. And that affects the way you look at things. So when your emotions are clouded, it clouds your judgement,” Kitsis explains.
“Emma’s a character who isn’t one who will let herself be pushed around. If she’s being pushed around, you can bet she’s going to push back,” Horowitz adds, although Kitsis reminds us that “every hero has a low moment.”
Kitsis and Horowitz say that Disney has been “very supportive” of their take on iconic fairy tales. “They’ve been very supportive,” Kitsis says. “Obviously at first when they heard there’s eight dwarves and we’ve killed one, they wanted us to talk to them… but they’ve been really great, and they’ve been very supportive. Even from the beginning. I think our pilot was the first time we show Snow White giving birth or wielding a sword on TV. This is the beloved franchise of Disney. Snow White. And they’ve said ‘Okay. Go have fun’.”
As Once Upon A Time nears its first season finale, the next step will be to find out about Season 2. Is there any news to report? Horowitz says they have not officially heard anything, but that the Once team is very optimistic and hopeful. “We have some ideas for what we would love to do if we’re blessed with a second season,” he reveals. One thing we might see in Season 2 will be a tale told just in Storybrooke or just in the fairy tale realm. “It is something we’ve discussed,” Adam says. “It’s got to be the right kind of story. You’re not just doing it for the gimmick of it, but you’re doing it because the story warrants that. It’s a really cool idea.”
Don’t miss a new episode of Once Upon A Time Sunday, March 25 at 8PM on ABC! You can read more of KSiteTV’s Once coverage here and be sure to come talk about the show on our forum! Below you can find images from the upcoming Evil Queen flashback episode, which airs on April 1.
1 Comment
I think it’d be cool to show some back story of Emma’s tale in “our world” and show some of her issues she’s been through in her life. I think that’d be an interesting story. She clearly has had a dramatic life, moving around, collecting bounty’s, jail – see her story as she was pregnant with Henry. I would love- if they do want to do an episode in just one world- Show Emma’s. We get all the FTL characters back stories ~ Emma’s would be cool . So would Henry’s as I think about it. I think it’d be cool to see what Henry went through on his road to discover the truth about Storybrooke and his “mother” the Evil Queen. Just thoughts ~