The Future of Once Upon a Time

Welcome back! This is the second part of my Once Upon a Time conversation.

You can read part I here.

The Future.

So I talked about how the end of the finale showed a little girl going to a door, she knocks and claims that she is the man’s daughter, and the man is Henry Mills. So, first, it’s super cute that it’s a little girl and that she is going to be biracial, OUAT definitely needs more diversity in it’s leading group of characters. However, the set up seems to be exactly the same of as the very first episode where Henry finds Emma who is his long lost mother. Lucy, the little girl was apparently in Fairy Tale Land, as Tiger Lily showed up to her, and she is the keeper of the storybook. So it’ll be interesting.

I can’t speculate on what’s going to happen in the future, but I have some ideas that I think would be great additions, that wouldn’t be rehashing what we’ve already seen. If the show wasn’t going to end on that really perfect series finale ending, then it should get a complete reboot.

Jennifer Morrison (Emma Swan), Gennifer Goodwin (Snow White), Josh Dallas (Prince Charming), Jared Gilmore (Henry Mills), Rebecca Mader (Zelena) and Emilie De Ravin (Belle) are leaving the show for good. While I love Regina and Rumple, part of me feels that Regina should no longer be on the show either, her story I think has ended many times over. Lana Parilla is fantastic but I’m curious to see what happens to her character since she’s staying.

There’s a bit more to be done with Rumple considering how his FTL version is involved in so many stories and Robert Carlyle is fantastic but I also wonder that since his WIFE is leaving, was he raising baby Gideon on his own?? Or since it’s in the future where Henry is an adult, is Gideon a teenager now?

What about Hook? What happened to Emma? I feel like since she’s leaving that her husband should be going with her, I am not a fan of Hook, I never really was, he was sassier in the beginning and I kind of liked him before he and Emma started dating. It went downhill for me AND I blame him for Merlin’s death so he hasn’t come back from that, same as him getting the loophole from Zeus to come back to life for being a hero and that was some BS. But anyway…

According to the writers, the beginning will parallel Emma’s story in terms of Henry losing his belief along the way, especially since he has the heart of the Truest Believer and his daughter has to help him along. There’s also going to be a reveal of his one true love, in the same vein as Snow and Charming’s love, which might mean that Lucy is a product of True Love but I’m interested to see who this woman of color is lol. Also, the fairy tale characters will be in the real world trying to find their happy endings… I also hope they move away from Storybrooke since Lucy finds Henry in Seattle. I’m okay with this to see where they go with it, if it ended I would have been fine but since it’s not, I’m curious.

My Ideas/Missed Opportunties

So I can’t help but wonder what type of fairy tales or stories they will bring into the story. We branched out into literature with having Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the story, they should keep doing that.

Aladdin– I really liked Deniz Akdeniz’s version of Aladdin, when we first meet him it’s in kind of flashback but in the future of the Aladdin story. Jafar has the magic carpet and finds him, he’s weak, in pain, he’s shaking and Jafar has a monologue about the consequences of being The Savior. We never got to see more of that, we never got to see Aladdin BE the Savior. In his actual introduction episode, we see him in Agrabah, he’s a thief, a pretty good one at that, Jasmine finds him and convinces him to go with her to the Cave of Wonders to find a Macguffin that has great power. It turns out that it was a test to see if Aladdin was the great power, he was, he saves her with light magic but he’s not for having this magic, not for being used and he meets Jafar who uses Iago an oracle, to show Aladdin his future which seemed like it was dire, he puts the idea of the Three Fate’s Shears being used to cut one away from their destiny. Aladdin does manage to save the day when Jafar threatens Jasmine and he goes off on his adventures, leaving Jasmine behind and Jafar magically sends the shears to Aladdin who keeps them and we learn later that he used them. Which I thought was such a missed opportunity. He does take up the mantle of being a genie to help our heroes in winning which was cool but that also was a missed opportunity.

• What they should have done, Aladdin should have had residual Savior magic, especially since Emma did a locator spell to find him by using their connection to the Savior magic. She still finds him. Soooo, that means to me that he should have had some magic still. But apparently that story ends in the finale, but I still think there should be a spinoff OUAT in Agrabah because I want to see how witty, and smiling Aladdin got to that broken man. We never got to see him face off with one of the greatest villains in Jafar. I didn’t mind that Jasmine became a focus because she needed that but I don’t think it should have made Aladdin take a backseat. I want to see the moment he chose to cut away his magic and what happened afterwards. I want to see his moments with the Genie, I appreciate that line they gave in reverence to Robin Williams in the show but I think they glossed over so much with his character. There should either be a spin off for him and Jasmine since she had her own adventures OR bring them back into the show. I don’t think that story is over, he never got to truly face off with a villain. If they bring him back current time, then there should definitely be some flashbacks, MORE flashbacks.

Jasmine– Karen David’s accent didn’t bother me, it wasn’t that serious as NO ONE has an accent for the origins of their character. Accents hardly matter. ANYWAY, I appreciated that they gave her a bit more to do, she’s one of the Disney princesses who is not the lead and doesn’t have a lot to do. She is the one who ultimately faces off against Jafar but for political and fear reasons which is cool. She uses a potion and turns him into a staff and I was like what? I think she should be physical fighter with daggers or something, it would allow her to have the full package of being smart, brave AND adept physically. After all, in the sequels, Jasmine kicked butt. What was she doing in the Land of Untold Stories exactly? Who else did she meet? They pretty much wrapped up the arc they gave her in the beginning but there was more there.

Merlin– Such a BIGGGG missed opportunity. Also should be a regular, would definitely bring more people of color into the show. We get a glimpse of his past, he was running away from capture with someone else, what happened before he got his magic? How was he captured? EXPLAIN! He knew the prophecy about King Arthur who shirked his duties, he faces off against Nimue who became The Dark One after choosing revenge over the love for him, but he can’t fight her and she uses his tear to turn him into a tree. Emma and the others free him after going to Camelot and he goes with Emma on a quest to find a way to restore Excalibur. He was bound to Excalibur by Arthur who tries to get him to kill the heroes but he manages to break free. When Hook is turned into the Dark One, Merlin knows what’s to happen and he killed by Hook at the prodding of Nimue in order to cast a Dark Curse.

• So my problem with this is that Merlin is the originator of light magic, at least he’s the first person to have it. He was given this power by the Gods, which in this world I’m assuming the Gods of Mount Olympus. So it doesn’t make sense for him to actually be dead but perhaps that body of his gone, not like what Voldemort did with the Horcruxes but as he’s pure light magic, he found a way, to put his essence into something good. Perhaps something that Gold has in his shop. Once it’s found and someone with light magic (Aladdin maybe) gets a hold of it, it brings Merlin back in human form. He shouldn’t have died. Rumple is the Dark One, there should be a Savior= Aladdin (doesn’t have to be the lead) and there should be someone who is on the same level of the Dark One but good=Merlin who doesn’t have to be there ALL the time… just saying. Bring Elliot Knight back.

Bearskin– So this is a tale I read from the Grimm fairytale. In the story, a soldier returns from War, his parents are dead and his brother can’t house him so he is a wandering traveler. So a man with a hoof appears and makes a deal with him, he cannot bathe, clean himself or anything for 7 years. If he wins then he would be rich and free. If he died during the period then the Devil would have him. So he agrees, the hoofed man puts a green coat on him, as well as a Bearskin and tells him that his pockets will always refill with money but he cannot take it off. About four years into it, he meets a poor man who is facing prison for debts, Bearskin offers to help him so the man offers one of his three daughters’ hands. The oldest and middle daughters are repulsed by him, but the youngest actually talks with him and agrees to her father’s promise. Bearskin gives her half a ring and tells her he will return in 3 years. After time passes, he finds the hoofed man again and tells him to fulfill his end of the bargain. The man makes him good as new and sends him off with his money. He returns to the man, dressed nicely, and says he would marry one of his daughters. The older two run off to be cute for him but he dropped the other half of the ring in the glass of the younger daughter. They get married. The oldest sister hangs herself and the middle drowns herself and the Devil gets two souls for the price of one.

• Dark, I know, but I think it would be a great addition to the show. I think the soldier could be Tiana’s long lost brother, perhaps he was taken, disappeared or something and he doesn’t have to be a soldier since Tiana and Naveen are set in New Orleans and there aren’t really any real wars going on around that time.

• Instead of the “devil” the mysterious man could be the Voodoo Man Dr. Facilier especially since he was trying to collect souls for the Voodoo spirits. As Bearskin is a wandering man alone, he would be an easy target but he loses him but manages to win still by getting the two sisters, but that doesn’t mean they actually are just gone, he could reanimate them for his bidding. At least until all of his debts are repaid.

  • Or maybe he didn’t win the bet and his soul is owned by the voodoo man. I feel like I want to write this so I don’t want to go into anymore detail lol.

Tiana and Naveen- So we have not seen them at all on the show, there’s been no indication of them at all. I think if Aladdin and Jasmine don’t come back, at least as regulars, that we would need another couple in the same vein of what Snow and Charming were. I’m not sure if Henry and his mysterious lover stayed together or what, but it would be nice to have a strong couple like Snowing. It would be after the events of their movie, we could see flashbacks of that too if necessary, but they’re not older versions, but they would have been sent to the future by Mama Odie. So there could be flashbacks of their movie story if needed OR there could be moments where we see their life after the film and in their time period and what is going on in the present.

• Tiana– It would be cool actually if the soldier from Bearskin is her brother who went missing years before and older brother, maybe her parents thought he died. My head canon is that Tiana is 19 and Naveen is 21 in the movie, so their age could vary depending on how far in the future the show would have them.

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She is my choice for Tiana. Annie Illonzeh, she’s currently 33 but I think she has a youthful look about her. Or Nicole Beharie.

• Naveen– We don’t really learn much about his past, so him being on the show would give us that chance. Plus, considering how irresponsible he started as off, it would be good to see that progression from him before the movie (in flashbacks) to how he was throughout the film. His casting is a bit harder due to the many things surrounding him. Bruno Campos his voice actor is Brazilian and exaggeration accent, his name is Indian and I’ve always considered his fictional country of Maldonia to be in South America, perhaps his mother is of Indian descent, but I came across Caua Reymond and I can’t find anyone better right now.

He has that smile, and the hair, he’s tall. But I think it would be interesting to go a bit more into detail for him.

• Mulan- So I don’t think we ever really got closure with her, Ruby and Dorothy got together and had their closure to an extent (which I thought was super random), but the last time we see her is when she and Ruby go to Oz and it definitely seemed like they were hinting at a Mulan and Merida thing at one point, which I’m okay with since they’re very similar. But they have to come back. I really want to know about Mulan’s past, what about her in the Chinese army? I want to know that whole story, we never go to see it and I would love to see it, what about her relationship with her parents? Was there a Li Shang? It might not have been a romantic thing but it would have been cool for her to have a friend… I think there’s a lot we haven’t explored with her. She just shows up and disappears.

• Merida- I guess her story was over, as she ended up back home, but I thought she got a bit short changed, she was thrown in there and wasn’t really utilized much. She ended up being used by Dark Emma but meh… I think she could come back.

• Kida and Milo– Remember Atlantis: The Lost Empire, why don’t we ever see her anywhere? Not only do I think Disney needs to a Live Action film but it would be cool to bring her into the show as well. She ends up being a Queen (I don’t even remember the sequel so ignoring that) and she doesn’t have to be in present time, they always have someone go to a different world somewhere where they need help, or they go to Atlantis for some reason and both her and Milo could be there.

• Jim Hawkins- As an older man! In the film he’s like 16 and he gets his life together at the end, it would be so cool to involve him! If we insist on having Hook around, perhaps they could meet and be friends, since Hook doesn’t really have any guy friends. OR if Hook leaves, it would be cool to have Jim replace him.

• Jefferson/Mad Hatter– This is wishful thinking as Sebastian Stan is in the MCU, but I would love for him to return for a few episodes. When he was reunited with Grace, he kind of just disappeared. I would love to know what really happened with him.

• Quasimodo- I think this has been a fan favorite request as well. But again, his story is actually set in a real location of France, perhaps as in the first movie, he doesn’t get the girl, he could be one of those people in search of their happy ending as this new season is dealing with that type of thing. I knew there was a sequel but I don’t remember that or the blonde girl so it could be someone new. Plus, seeing flashbacks with Count Frollo would be everything.

• Esmerelda- She is very memorable. What if Pheobus died and now she has to find a new happy ending. I think they had a kid in the sequel, sure that’s fine, but if Regina is still around, perhaps they could become friends (as both Snow AND Emma are gone, so her friends have left the building) and they could go off to find their true loves together. I think it would be interesting that if Pheobus dies, that Esmerelda’s new man be Jim Hawkins or maybe even the Bearskin soldier… or maybe have her “help” a villain get their life together.

• Hercules/Meg- I’ve never been a huge fan of the animated film, but I watch it when it comes on TV most times, but I liked the actor they had for Hercules and towards the end, I liked Meg BUT they were so wasted. I understand that Herc served his purpose in Snow’s past (they were super cute though) but why didn’t we ever see him come into real contact with his uncle Hades? Even if it wasn’t that serious in the Underworld, why didn’t we see any flashbacks of them interacting? It was like they weren’t even related. I thought that was a very sad missed opportunity, plus I liked him and wanted more. His only finished business was to defeat Cerberus? I mean come on, that’s lame. He could totally be a series regular. Also could be friends with Jim lol.

Villains

There are many villains in Fairy Tales, I think there are many they could pull from that aren’t just Disney. I kind of want them to go a bit dark, not necessarily scary, but pull characters that are actually scary. As Rumple fulfilled his Savior prophecy and Regina hasn’t really done a “bad” thing in a while, who would be our new villain? I don’t see the point of having Rumple relapse again and is he still The Dark One all these years later? I would rather Rumple to no longer be the Dark One in the current time, but to maybe have a bit of magic since he was supposed to be a Savior but it not be very strong. It’s kind of hard to say since I love Dark One Rumple lol.

• Jafar– Oded Fehr was great. His story is the only one that really connects to the OUAT in Wonderland, but he leaves Agrabah has his adventure in Wonderland, gets turned into a genie then faces off with Jasmine who uses a potion to turn into a staff. Um, he was a sorcerer and a genie, SO that staff shouldn’t be a long term transformation. Too much power would overload a janky transformation spell. He reverts back to his human form, still a genie unfortunately and plots revenge on both Aladdin and Jasmine. Jasmine for turning him into the staff and rebuffing him and Aladdin defeating him (breaking his snake staff) and for literally being the same person just whose destiny led him to a better life, he even says something to that effect to Aladdin when he saves Jasmine from him in “Street Rats”.

• Headless Horseman– Maybe they could include this story as well, he’s a spirit, maybe a villain is controlling him.

• Dr. Facilier aka “The Voodoo Man“- So what I’m thinking is that, yeah, he “died” in the film but he was more or less dragged away, it’s assumed he’s dead. I think the best way to handle this, without having too many loopholes from what we already know or seen, Bearskin’s soul could be owned by the Facilier, as he lost the bet. So, even though Facilier is gone, Bearskin is collecting souls for him. In the film, he barters with the spirits to give him what he needs and he promised them all of the souls in New Orleans, that’s the only reason why they agreed to help him, so sure he got dragged away but they wanted all of those souls, why? So, let’s find out why. Bearskin could be making deals (I’m sure Rumple might be aware of this even if it’s in the real world. Bearskin could have limited magic to allow him to travel in between realms, how? Meh, I don’t know, maybe they had a stash of magic beans, and he is able to converse with Facilier, or maybe his shadow is still around and in order for him to be free, they have to give a certain amount of souls in place of his. This is how Tiana and Naveen could find him. I think Facilier should definitely come back, maybe during the midseason finale, he does and then if there is a season 8 he should last into the next season. His magic is different from most of the magic we’ve seen, I think it would be interesting.

• Horned King- The scary Skeleton dude from The Black Cauldron. That film is very underrated and that dude is scary, practical effects, no need for tons of CGI but this would allow for Taran and Eilonwy to be in the film (everyone else can stay in the animated film). He wanted to raise a dead army using the Cauldron, another dude who may or may not be dead depending on how it’s handled. I just think he’s a different villain than what we’ve seen before.

• Count Frollo- Mostly Flashbacks, there’s really not a reason for him to be alive considering his terrible and well deserved death in the film, but if we bring Quasimodo into it, then I think there should be at least some reason to see him. If you remember the Aladdin/Hercules TV show crossover, Jafar managed to “come back alive” by making a deal with Hades, perhaps Frollo does the same? But he’s not fully alive? He and Facilier could have some type of understanding since they’re both in the real world.

The Story.

So the way I see it, I think that season 7 should push past the stories we’ve already seen and learned about. There is really no reason to keep Regina, Hook and Rumple around, if anyone should be around it would be Rumple considering his stake in almost every story but I don’t think it’s necessary going forward as the others have moved on. I love Lana Parilla and Robert Carlyle but just as there isn’t’ really a need for Zelena, there isn’t really a need for them. I think the idea of an adult Henry embarking on whatever he’s embarking on is cool as there is a familiar character, but I can’t help but wonder at how much that story will mirror Emma’s. He may not be a Savior as he’s the Truest Believer but still, his daughter has to make him believe like he made Emma believe? Eh, I’m not really into a rehash, even if the direction may change later.
I think by introducing completely new characters (Tiana, Naveen etc.) with a new story, perhaps the message is “freedom” and “connecting with your lost past” it would be a nice throwback to what OUAT has been about but by doing it in a new way with new people we’ve never seen before. It would also give the show the chance to go a bit darker like Disney itself has in the past, I don’t think anyone should be upset about it as a lot of the classic films are kind of scary. OUAT has an opportunity to revitalize their show, I think there is a lot of potential going forward and I would hate see the show get cancelled after this season without ever reaching it’s full potential.

Overall,

These are just some ideas I have for their directions. I would like to see new things, new characters, especially diverse ones. I think Tiana and Naveen would be a great regular addition to the show filling that Snow and Charming void. I think bringing back certain characters like Aladdin would put someone back into that “savior” role, someone we never really saw embrace that part of him, he cut it away before we really got the chance to see it. If Jafar never returns, I guess that’s fine as he was in Wonderland BUT we didn’t get to see Oded Fehr as much and I think it was a missed opportunity. Henry can remain to fill the “Emma Swan” role if they want someone who doesn’t believe in the beginning BUT I don’t think that’s necessary for this show anymore. Otherwise, bring a new person in who hasn’t experience magic but not be related to Emma or anyone like that. I mean, bring that kid (as an adult) from Rescuer’s Down Under and have him get thrust into the magical world lol.

I just feel like there are so many things to do and I feel like this season is going to be the last. I love how the show brought so many new ways to these well known (and lesser) stories and that’s awesome, but it’s gotten stale, sometimes they manage to reinvigorate the story but this is a chance to really put Once Upon a Time in a new line and bring it back and breathe into it fresh air. I think that’s so important. I really want them to make it feel new again.

I think these are ways that it can.

Let me know your thought below. What characters do you think they should add?

Do you think that Regina, Rumple, Hook and Henry should even still be around?

Please let me know your thoughts! I’d love to have conversations with OUAT fans about the future of the show!