Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26261400-20161005224646/@comment-24674051-20161007174005

While I tend to agree that Emma's storyline may be drawing to a close, it would not be that hard to introduce new characters. Look at how LOST progressed, for example. You had essentially 4-5 core characters, and a host of supporting cast that breifly elevated to starring and then were dropped. Take a show that has had a longer run, like ER or Law & Order. In both cases, the final season had managed to turn the entire cast over at least once during the run of the series.

Honestly, if they were to start focusing less on Emma and her involvement, and focus more on some other character that they want to promote (say Zelena, or maybe someone brought over from the LoUS), they could shift the focus of the show to developing the new set of characters, maybe 1 or 2 at a time as they rotate them in and current chars out.

I think where that would cause a problem for Once is that characters like Regina and Emma, that have been here since the beginning, are fan favorites, so removing them from the equation in this fashion might effectively kill what is left of the viewership of the show. The other program model to follow would be from shows like NCIS, Law & Order, and Star Trek, where they spin off a new series from the main, each with a little bit of a different twist, but keeping the same general flavor of the original (with potential to have the different shows interact in some fashion). And that is how I would see any future for Once after the current series ends (whenever that occurs). Wonderland was conceptually correct, I think the time placement (Thursday at 7, rather than Sunday) is the primary reason that it didn't do as well as it was hoped.