Behind-The-Scenes Secrets You Didn’t Know About Once Upon A Time

Summary

• Once Upon a Time featured an intricate mythology blending multiple worlds, Disney characters, and fairy tales into one captivating story.
• Behind the scenes, Jennifer Morrison and Lana Parrilla’s alleged feud added tension to the otherwise close-knit cast of Once Upon a Time.
• The show faced challenges such as scheduling guest stars, gaining Disney approval, and managing rights to fictional characters to create its elaborate world.

ABC’s Once Upon a Time took fans into an expansive fictional world that crossed multiple realities, but with a large ensemble cast and so many Disney connections, there was a lot going on behind the scenes of the show. The series is one that could – and should – have made for a truly enjoyable series: fan-favorite fairytale characters have come to life in the modern world due to a magical curse. The show follows Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) after her son tracks her down to prove that the town where he lives is populated by fairy tale characters.

The show eventually developed an extensive mythology that was able to weave multiple fictional worlds, myths, and Disney characters, into one big story. In order to make that happen, guest stars had to be lined up far in advance, schedules needed to be synced, Disney had to give approval, and rights to other fictional characters had to be acquired. It was truly a daunting task to create Once Upon A Time.

Jennifer Morrison And Lana Parrilla Allegedly Feuded Behind The Scenes

Emma Swan and Regina Mills

It’s hardly ever a guarantee that co-stars are going to get along. Celebrity feuds aren’t exactly a new concept, and in this day and age of social media and convention circuits, spats can get out of hand. Casting directors, after all, are concerned with the chemistry in front of the camera and believe that everyone will get along for the sake of the work. That doesn’t always happen.

In the case of Jennifer Morrison and Lana Parrilla, their alleged mutual dislike has been treated like an open secret within the show’s fandom for years. The Once Upon A Time cast is a remarkably close one, with many true lifelong friendships having been formed within the ranks. Morrison and Parrilla, however, are decidedly not part of that trend. Rarely ever taking a photo together or engaging in any joint events or interviews, the duo are also pitted against one another by the fans.

Some eagle-eyed viewers have even pointed out that certain scenes between Regina and Emma clearly use body doubles, which has been rumored to be so that they could avoid being scheduled together unless necessary.

Emilie De Ravin And Tom Ellis Have Been Accused Of Cheating

Belle and Robin Hood

Relationships that bloom on set between co-stars are a fairly common phenomenon when it comes to movies and TV shows, regardless of whether they’re successful relationships or not. That’s often because cast and crew spend months on end around one another and no one else. As they get to know one another, it’s natural for romantic relationships to form.

Unfortunately, though, infidelity on set is something else that happens all too frequently. In the case of Once Upon a Time, a sordid wrinkle in its production history comes in the form of an encounter between a series regular and a guest star. Tamzin Outhwaite, ex-wife of Lucifer star Tom Ellis, has alleged that Ellis cheated on her with Once‘s Emilie De Ravin during the one episode in which he appeared as the original Robin Hood.

Ellis did not remain on the show, though the character of Robin Hood did.

Josh Dallas And Ginnifer Goodwin’s Unconventional Relationship Start

Snow White and Prince Chaming

In the world of Once Upon a Time, Snow White and Prince Charming are heralded as the epitome of True Love. A couple who will always find each other no matter the odds that may be facing them, they survived evil curses, memory wipes, dragons, and so much more. They even literally share one heart after one of theirs is stolen, cementing their status as soulmates.

In reality, co-stars Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas have forged their own true love story, but theirs had a far less fairytale-type beginning. When Goodwin and Dallas met at the beginning of Once‘s production, Goodwin was still engaged to her fiance Joey Kern, and Dallas was married to his then-wife Lara Pulver. However, after becoming co-workers and friends, the two hit it off and ended up in a romantic relationship. Dallas and Goodwin are now, much like their onscreen counterparts, married with two kids.

Sebastian Stan’s Mad Hatter Was Meant To Be A Bigger Role

Jefferson

In one of Once‘s strongest episodes, “Hat Trick,” viewers are introduced to the absolutely magnetic character of Jefferson, as played by Sebastian Stan. Today, the audience knows Stan best as Bucky Barnes AKA the Winter Solider in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Jefferson is one of the only characters in all of Storybrooke who has been allowed to retain his memories of life in the Enchanted Forest – a world in which he was The Mad Hatter and lived with his young daughter, Grace. Thanks to Stan’s performance, Jefferson’s anguish and trauma are treated as raw and real and tragic. His arc over the course of that one episode ranges from sympathetic to villainous and back again. Later episodes find him reuniting with his daughter after all this time, but after they reunite, he’s never seen again.

As it turns out, much more was meant to come from Jefferson’s character, but Sebastian Stan’s busy schedule – thanks in large part to his commitment to the MCU – prevented the character from returning as a more permanent member of the Once Upon A Time cast.

Stan’s MCU Success May Have Ended His Relationship With Jennifer Morrison

The Mad Hatter and Emma Swan

It may not have only been Jefferson’s return to Once Upon a Time that Stan’s success within the MCU prevented, however. According to reports at the time, the real-life relationship between Jennifer Morrison and Sebastian Stan came to an end in 2013 due to the co-stars-turned-couple having to deal with distance and different schedules that caused a rift between the two.

All reports on their breakup stressed that the couple, who had dated for a little more than a year from 2012 until 2013, had no hard feelings toward one another. So unfortunate though it may be, it really does seem as though the gain of Stan’s Bucky led to the loss of the wonderful relationship he shared with Morrison. It’s understandable that it would be difficult when they were both often working in completely different parts of the world.

Hook Was Supposed To Be Included From The Start

Captain Killian “Hook”

It’s hard to imagine what Once Upon a Time would have looked like had Captain Hook not joined the cast of characters in the series’ second season. He became a fan-favorite by many who watched the show from beginning to end. However, as it turns out, if the showrunners Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz had their way, Hook would have been an original member of the cast from the very beginning.

As they’ve explained in multiple interviews and convention appearances, his character was meant to be incorporated in the first season, but acquiring the rights to J.M. Barrie’s character proved to be an issue for the show. They maintain that his character was always meant to be a central one and that he was always designed as the true love for Emma Swan’s savior character as well.

Sean Maguire Has Been Openly Critical Of The Show

Robin Hood

One of the many problems with Once over the years is the way in which its focus shifts from character to character in a truly uneven way. The show is initially poised as an ensemble, but some characters get the spotlight a lot more than others. As a result of this constantly shifting prioritization, some characters never receive the development they’re due.

Robin Hood is perhaps the clearest case of this. Sean Maguire replaced Tom Ellis in the role when the character reappeared in the series. An originally spark-filled character with an interesting personality and backstory in the third season, Robin soon became no more than a love interest for Regina. In some episodes, he scarcely ever said a word, lingering in the background as glorified human scenery.

Actor Sean Maguire has been vocal about his unhappiness with the way the show treated his character, especially given the brutal and unceremonious death his character was given at the hands of the Greek god Hades.

Meghan Ory Left The Series When Her Character Was Denied An Arc

Ruby

The character of Ruby Lucas offered what was arguably one of Once‘s most successful and most interesting fairytale adaptations: Little Red Riding Hood, it turned out, was the Big Bad Wolf all along. An extremely independent and strong character, Ruby’s personality added a fun dash of spark in every scene she had, no matter her scene partner.

So it made sense, then, that the series promoted the actor, Meghan Ory, to series regular in season two. Ruby was supposed to receive a much bigger plot, and in the first half of the season, it started to show in her relationship with Charming as she gradually became more prominent in the show.

However, suddenly, plans for the second half of the season changed, according to Ory’s recollection at the time as she has relayed at convention appearances, and Ruby was mostly absent from the later episodes. After that season, Ory herself would walk away from the show, only returning for a handful of episodes in the seasons to follow since she was left with no real storyline for her character.

The Showrunners Introduced Zelena Because They Liked Working With Rebecca Mader

Zelena The Wicked Witch

Prior to working on Once Upon a Time, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz spent some years working on another ensemble series with heavy lore: LOST. During their time on the series, Rebecca Mader was cast as Charlotte Lewis, anthropologist and love interest of the enigmatic physicist Daniel Faraday. Her arc on the series, however, was short-lived.

Kitsis and Horowitz so enjoyed working with Mader on LOST that they decided they needed to find a character on Once Upon A Time that would be well-suited for her. Eventually, they settled on Zelena, who had a short arc in season three as the seasonal primary antagonist Wicked Witch. It was a very different role from Charlotte and she got to really chew some scenery for it.

Yet since they enjoyed Mader so much, she would return to the show and become a main character.

Rumpelstiltskin Was Written For Robert Carlyle

Rumpelstiltskin

When writing for a piece of media, it’s pretty hard not to mentally cast the dream actor who would be perfect for the role. It makes it that much easier to hear and understand the character’s voice and behavior when writers have an audiovisual reference, after all. When this happens while writing for TV or movies, however, writers and producers don’t always expect that the actor they envision will wind up in the role. Scheduling, lack of interest, or even someone else surprising the casting directors during auditions can change the vision.

As they adapted their version of Rumpelstiltskin, Kitsis and Horowitz found themselves returning again and again to the actor Robert Carlyle as the only person they could imagine in the role. But never did they believe that he would be willing to take on the character, even if he was the only one they wanted for the role. By the end of the show, however, Carlyle was one of the only original cast members who remained with the show, proving that even a writer’s wildest dreams can come true in Hollywood.

Lady Gaga Was Considered For The Blue Fairy

Sometimes, stunt casting is okay. Enjoyable cameos can liven up any episode, whether comedic or dramatic. But in other cases, stunt casting is the worst possible thing a series could do, especially when it involves a frequently recurring role because it takes too much attention away from the character the writers want the audience to see.

Thankfully, Once avoided this misstep, though not through any of their own original planning. According to Kitsis and Horowitz, Lady Gaga was the actress they originally intended to have star as the perpetually shifty Blue Fairy. They even reached out to her management with the offer of the role when the series began in 2011. But they never heard back, and never even knew if the offer had reached her, so Gaga never set foot in the Enchanted Forest.

Lady Gaga has, however, gone on to several high-profile acting roles, like in American Horror Story, A Star Is Born, and the DC movie Joker: Folie à deux.

Fans can get pretty passionate when they’re invested in a series, whether it’s a movie franchise or a television show. In the age of social media interactivity, however, that fan passion can get out of hand and lead to some destructive behavior.

In the case of the Once Upon a Time cast, there have been at least three incidents in which fan harassment led actors to withdraw from social media. After being harassed by a particular group of fans, Ginnifer Goodwin deleted her Twitter (now X) profile and has never returned. Josh Dallas was harassed by troll accounts on Twitter and Instagram and deleted his pages, but has since taken up Instagram again.

Jennifer Morrison also withdrew from using Twitter in any form after the first three and a half seasons of the show, in which she had frequently engaged in fan Q&As. After leaving the series, however, she became more active on social media again.

Parrilla Made The Writers Change The Dynamic Between Regina And Henry

For the first two seasons of the show, the relationship between Evil Queen Regina and her adoptive son Henry is consistently framed as abusive. She gaslights him into believing he’s crazy, wipes his memories, and forces him to love her. She leaves him suspended in midair with tree vines when he dares to rebel against her abusive ways. And as if all that wasn’t bad enough, she poisons him with a lethal dose of a magic potion intended for his birth mother, Emma.

Sometime during the second season, Parrilla allegedly went to the showrunners to change the relationship between the two. Despite Regina being the villain of the show at the time, she felt the relationship was a bad representation of an adoptive relationship, and wanted to feature a more positive portrayal.

Of course, season three reveals that he was illegally adopted, and the bizarre twist of perspective on their relationship created a muddled mess that shortchanged many of the series’ far healthier dynamics. It did, however, help pave the way for a redemption arc for Regina.

Katee Sackhoff Auditioned Five Times For The Role Of Emma Swan

There’s no question about the fact that Emma Swan is the beating heart of Once Upon a Time to its many devoted fans. The absence of her character in the show’s poorly conceived reboot season is palpable and uncomfortable to many. Much of what made Emma such a significant and inspiring character can be attributed to Jennifer Morrison’s spot-on portrayal of the lost girl who found her home among the fairy tale figures.

From the moment they auditioned her for the part, the series’ showrunners knew that they wanted Morrison for the role above all else. But even despite their conviction regarding their dream casting, auditions continued, even including a five-round audition process for sci-fi fan favorite Katee Sackhoff.

Sackhoff is best known for playing Starbuck in the Battlestar: Galactica reboot and has also appeared in Longmire, The Flash, and the Star Wars franchise.

Prince Charming Was Going To Die In The Pilot

It’s a truly heartbreaking moment in the pilot episode of Once Upon A Time when Prince Charming valiantly sacrifices himself in order to save his newborn daughter Emma. As he seemingly dies within the world of the Enchanted Forest, viewers are left hanging… until it’s revealed that he managed to survive the near-death experience and is in Storybrooke in a coma.

However, according to the original idea for the series, things were almost a lot darker: Prince Charming was never actually meant to survive his ultimate hero’s sacrifice moment. In fact, he was meant to meet certain death. For a show ostensibly about hope, this early death may have struck too bleak a note for the beginning of its many tales.

Interestingly, this idea isn’t far off from Kitsis and Horowitz’s other high-profile show. In LOST, main character Jack was originally conceived to die in the pilot episode and became one of the show’s main ensemble members as it went on. Clearly, the showrunners have come to understand that the first ideas for the pilot don’t always work, and brought that energy to Once Upon A Time.