Returning stars Lana Parrilla and Colin O'Donoghue and the show's newest additions introduce their new fairy tale personas in the season 7 series reboot.
Once Upon a Time isn’t just starting a new chapter with its seventh season — it’s opening a whole new book with brand-new retellings of your favorite fairy tales, starting with a new take on Cinderella and her prince.
“It feels a little edgier,” returning star Colin O’Donoghue told Rotten Tomatoes on the ABC series’ Vancouver set.
The rebooted series follows a group of new fairy tale characters living under cursed identities in Hyperion Heights, a neighborhood of Seattle, along with three returning fan-favorite characters with new cursed personas.
This curse has pulled a grown-up Henry (Andrew J. West, previously played by Jared Gilmore) away from his love, Jacinda (a.k.a. Cinderella, played by fellow OUAT newcomer Dania Ramirez), and his daughter, Lucy (Alison Fernandez). This time, Lucy is the believer who must reunite her parents and save the fairy tale characters—including The Princess and the Frog‘s Tiana (aka Sabine, played by Mekia Cox), Roni (aka Regina aka the Evil Queen, played by returning star Lana Parrilla), and Hook (O’Donoghue).
There’s also Rumple (returning star Robert Carlyle), a mysterious new version of Alice (newbie Rose Reynolds), Cinderella’s evil stepmother Lady Tremaine (newbie Gabrielle Anwar) and evil stepsister Drizella (newbie Adelaide Kane, formerly of Reign).
“The show definitely feels like it’s taking a different identity on board, but it’s still the same show. But I think that’s one of the good things about this season — it does feel different. I think it would be a shame [if it didn’t],” O’Donoghue said on one of his character’s new sets, the Seattle police department, as this cursed Hook is a cop.
Though Parrilla does miss TV son Gilmore — “I miss kissing his face off and giving him giant, warm hugs in the morning,” she said on location in Vancouver — she has enjoyed creating a new character.
“The great thing about Once Upon a Time is that our characters are constantly evolving and growing and changing, and in season 7 they really have,” she said. “Regina’s out of pantsuits. She’s into denim and rock T-shirts and curly hair. She feels different, and as an actor that’s great for me. I love it — it feels like a new character, and it kind of is in some sense because she’s cursed and she doesn’t know who she is.”
To learn about the new characters in the actors’ own words, click through the gallery below for West, Ramirez, Cox, and Anwar’s takes on joining the show, the new curse, and the new love story.
Once Upon a Timeseason 7 premieres Friday, Oct. 6 at 8 p.m. on ABC.
ANDREW J. WEST, Henry
“We see two different Henrys,” West says of his familiar character. “We see a Henry who is going on adventures thorough these different realms. He’s younger — only a few years have passed since we last see Henry at the end of season 6. For that Henry, the one who’s exploring and going through these different realms and the Henry who first meets Cinderella, there’s a real sense of optimism. He’s searching for his story and he hasn’t found it yet but you get the feeling that he feels like he’s going to and he’s excited about it.”
On the other hand, “The Henry we see in Hyperion Heights is a very different person. He’s experienced some tragedy and he’s a little bit jaded, he’s a little bit cynical. He’s kind of down and out. The fire inside has been dimmed a little bit.”
But the great part about seeing these two separate versions of Henry is being able to watch him fall in love with Cinderella twice.
“As an adult we get to see him really fall head over heels for someone, and we see him really fight for someone. We see that this person has such a profound effect on him that it transcends different realms, so it’s absolutely hopeful and it’s fraught with more conflict than you can imagine,” he says, adding that it’s “frustrating at times in the best possible way.”
There’s a magical pull between Henry and Cinderella, he says.
“It happens in real life, too: You meet somebody and there’s just a bond. There’s just a strange, bizarre, magical thing that happens that you can’t really describe why but two people are just drawn to each other. That’s what we all sort of dream of and hope for in our own lives, and some of us are lucky enough to actually find that.”
West understands fans who might be skeptical of all the changes, but he has faith in creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis.
“I think the trick of it is to just trust the writing. It’s the same guys who have been in charge since day one,” he says.”
DANIA RAMIREZ, Cinderella/Jacinda
You might know the Cinderella story inside and out, but this isn’t the Disney version everyone grew up with.
“We’re going to take a completely different perspective, like, why she’s even going to the ball,” Ramirez says. “This is a different Cinderella — she’s had different kinds of struggles in her life, and she’s a badass and edgy. It’s about her standing up for how she’s been wronged. Instead of being a damsel in distress she’s empowered … It’s not just a princess getting married to a prince. In this story it’s magical in a very different way.”
That said, “It’s still a love story,” Ramirez reassures, “so you still get to enjoy the beautiful part of what that Cinderella story’s like, and she’s still dealing with these feelings of things not being fair in her life, and it’s what she does, this particular Cinderella, how she approaches all of those things that’s going to be different than anything you’ve ever seen before.”
Ramirez, too, understands that fans might be wary of all the changes — but she’s ready to take on the challenge of winning them over.
“We, as actors, make shows for the fans. And therefore if you make a good show, you’re going to have really loyal fans who are going to be very attached to these characters and you have to respect that,” she says. “But it’s also being able to grow with the show and seeing where it’s going to go.”
MEKIA COX, Tiana/Sabine
Like The Princess and the Frog‘s titular character, Sabine loves cooking.
“She is a dreamer,” Cox says. “She is someone who has these sort of big ideas about what she wants and she really tries her best to pursue those ideas. She wants to be a cook, she wants to own her own restaurant, and I think she is a leader in her own way without trying to be, and she’s a lover. She’s a believer as well. She has this connection with Lucy because they can play a little with their idea of fairy tales, and I think that ties into Tiana because Tiana is a big believer and she is very focused on her goals and her causes and what she feels is right.”
GABRIELLE ANWAR, Lady Tremaine
“I think all evil people are misunderstood a little bit. I mean, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt that they were born pure, innocent, sweet little angels and something tremendously awful happened to them and that’s why they become so cruel,” the Burn Notice actress, who plays Cinderella’s Evil Stepmother, says.
Anwar says she joined OUAT in part because her daughter is a huge fan, and has felt welcomed by the veteran cast members on the series.
“I think from the environment they’ve created, despite the fact that they’re obviously sorry to have lost some dear friends and beloved characters, I think they’re excited to get some new juju involved,” she says. “I’m sure Lana’s exhausted, and she’s like, ‘Here, here’s the evil witch wand. Use it wisely!'”
