I’ve been a fan of ABC’s Once Upon a Time since the beginning, so I was thrilled when I heard we’d have the chance to screen the Season 6 premiere episode before it aired as well as sit down with Once Upon a Time Co-Creators and Executive Producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Travel, accommodations and photos are courtesy of ABC TV and Disney, but all thoughts are my own. This post is spoiler-free so you don’t need to wait to read it before watching the episode!
This new season of Once Upon a Time brings the characters we have grown to love on the show along with a host of new characters back to Storybrooke. In the last few seasons, we’ve seen our characters go on journeys to Neverland or the Underworld. This season, they’ll be sticking around Storybrooke and trying to build their lives again at home. Of course, they’ll still have the classic flashbacks from other times and places.
Co-creator Adam Horowitze said, “We’re trying to dig more into what daily life is, what normal is. In an early episode you’re going to see Snow White ask the question, ‘What is normal? And how do we get back to it?'”
JOSH DALLAS, LANA PARRILLA, JARED S. GILMORE in ONCE UPON A TIME Season 6 – ‘The Savior’ (ABC/Jack Rowand)
In Season 5, we explored the Dark Ones and darkness…while this season, we’ll be exploring saviors and light, and how they got to where they are.
After seeing the season premiere, I can’t wait to see the rest of the season!
About Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 1: “The Savior”
THE HEROES FACE OFF AGAINST A DANGEROUS NEW ENEMY, AS EMMA COMES TO TERMS WITH WHAT IT MEANS TO BE THE SAVIOR, AND RUMPLE ENTERS BELLE’S DREAMSCAPE, ON THE SEASON PREMIERE OF ABC’S ‘ONCE UPON A TIME’
GILES MATTHEY, ROBERT CARLYLE in ONCE UPON A TIME Season 6 – ‘The Savior’ (ABC/Jack Rowand)
As “Once Upon a Time” returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00–9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain — the Evil Queen. Creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (“Lost,” “Tron: Legacy”) invite you to join everyone’s favorite fairytale characters as they face-off against this supercharged enemy.
In the season premiere episode, “The Savior,” as our heroes set out to stop Hyde, Emma develops a mysterious side effect, and Storybrooke becomes a haven for people from the Land of Untold Stories. Meanwhile, Regina and Zelena embrace their newfound sisterhood by becoming roommates, while Rumple tries to free Belle from the sleeping Curse with the help of a stranger. In flashback, Jafar confronts an afflicted Aladdin in Agrabah, and a secret about the Savior is revealed.
HANK HARRIS, JENNIFER MORRISON, JOSH DALLAS in ONCE UPON A TIME Season 6 – ‘The Savior’ (ABC/Jack Rowand)
“Once Upon a Time” stars Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, Lana Parrilla as the Evil Queen/Regina, Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David, Emilie de Ravin as Belle, Colin O’Donoghue as Hook, Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills, Rebecca Mader as the Wicked Witch/Zelena and Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold.
Guest starring are Raphael Sbarge as Archie Hopper/Jiminy Cricket, Beverley Elliott as Granny, Oded Fehr as Jafar, Deniz Akdeniz as Aladdin, Tarun Keram as Emir, Peter Marcin as Chief, Farris Tyab, Jordan Ashley Olson as Young Nurse/Oracle, Giles Matthey as Morpheus, Thomas Gasior as Musketeer #1, Ingrid Torrance as Nurse Ratchet, Hank Harris as Dr. Jekyll and Sam Witwer as Mr. Hyde.
Oded Feher Guest Stars as Jafar and Deniz Akdeniz as Aladdin
“The Savior” was written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, and directed by Eagle Egilsson.
Once Upon a Time Q&A with Co-Creators and Executive Producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz
Once Upon a Time Co-Creators and Executive Producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and the #ABCTVEvent bloggers. Photo by Marshall Weinbaum
It was so interesting to sit down with Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz to discuss not only the series as a whole, but also the plans and inside information about the upcoming season. I wish I could share EVERYTHING we talked about, but I promised I’d keep this post spoiler-free!
Once Upon a Time is a show without a period. Without a “the end.” In fact, the classic fairy tale “once upon a time” and “happily ever after” concepts are based on leaving the bulk of the story unfinished. Happily ever after is not the end. And the show Once Upon a Time is a story about journeys, not happy endings.
In this season, they’ll be getting inside Emma’s head even more and looking at how she will react in her role as the Savior if she doesn’t think she will ever get her own happy ending.
Creators and executive producers of “Once Upon a Time,” Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis (ABC/Todd Wawrychuk)
Edward Kitsis said, “What if someone can undo all the happiness you’ve done; would your life matter? So if you can’t get your own happy ending, and you’re faced with somebody out there that’s trying to undo the ones you have done, what does that do to you?”
One of the most interesting concepts for me that was introduced in the Season 6 premiere episode was the Land of Untold Stories.
Adam Horowitz said, “In the past we’ve seen the characters within Storybrooke who have been effective by the curse, whose stories intersect with our (main) characters, in the case of characters whose happy endings have been ripped away by the Evil Queen and her curse. With the Land of Untold Stories, it’s a little bit different, and what we’re exploring is characters who have run away from their stories, who have left them and gone to this other place. Now they find themselves in Storybrooke in stories that may have been put on pause and resumed. So rather than stories that necessarily that have ended in a certain way, these are stories that were kind of midstream that for whatever reason the characters didn’t want to see it continue.”
I’m excited to see who these untold story characters are.
COLIN O’DONOGHUE as Hook in ONCE UPON A TIME Season 6 – ‘The Savior’ (ABC/Jack Rowand)
I loved the question that one of the bloggers asked Edward and Adam. She asked, “Six seasons into the show, you guys are at the point where true love is not just a romantic love, it can be between a parent and a child, or between siblings. Can you talk about sort of exploring and moving away from what a traditional happy ending or true love story would be?”
The answer was profound and gave me a lot to think about in the way that I perceive my own life and my wish for my own happy ending.
Edward replied, “I think this show has always been about a family. There’s a lot of romance and I think you’re going to see the first few episodes (of Season 6) have a lot of that romance in them, but at the end of the day, the curse was broken between a son and a mom. Family comes first on this show, and that is important to us. I think that also we try to do real life, like (for example) Neil. Neil is Emma’s first boyfriend. We all have them, and you don’t marry them usually; you move on and you learn from them. And they become a ‘how to’ of what not to do or what to do, but that’s what they were, and that was real to us.”
JENNIFER MORRISON as Emma on ONCE UPON A TIME Season 6 – ‘The Savior’ (ABC/Jack Rowand)
He continued, “That’s the question we’re going to ask, or you’re going to see Snow White ask, ‘What is a happy ending?’ Everyone kind of expects it to be like, ‘if only I got here I would be so happy.’ And then you get there and you look up and you go, I actually want what’s there. And I think that in these stories, they end with happily ever after, which means they go on. They very rarely say the end. There is no period at the end, so how do you live your life like that? If I’m waiting around for the three things that are going to make me happy and then I can just sit down and go, ‘I’m happy,’ it doesn’t work like that. And I think the characters have to slowly start to realize that as well, because I think that a lot of them just believe that after true love’s kiss, we wake up and we go off into the sunset….except for there’s another episode the next week and a new marshmallow monster comes to town.”
Disclaimer: there is no marshmallow monster coming to Storybrooke any time soon (at least not that they told us), but there WILL be a ton of new and exciting things and people to introduce, like Captain Nemo and The Count of Monte Cristo. And the very first thing that my OUAT-fan daughter asked….yes, we WILL be seeing more of Cinderella this season! I can’t wait to see how their stories play out in the coming weeks!
What are you most excited to see or learn in Season 6? Who are your favorite characters?
Connect with Once Upon a Time
- Visit abc.com/Once for more information
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/OnceABC
- Twitter: @OnceABC and @ABC_Publicity Hashtag: #OnceUponATime
© 2016, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
Leave a Reply