Cyrus

Cyrus is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. He débuts in the first episode of the first season and is portrayed by starring cast member Peter Gadiot.

History
For hundreds of years, Cyrus lives in a bottle as a genie granting the wishes of countless people. In Agrabah, his bottle falls into the hands of a scarf selling vendor man. Cyrus warns the man of a magic wielding sorcerer who is looking to attain his bottle. From two wishes, the man gains much, but attracts the suspicious eye of Jafar. Through heavy questioning, Jafar believes, without a doubt, that the man acquired his wealth by magical means. The sudden boiling of a tea kettle sends the man scurrying into the back room to shut off the stove, but he instead uses the bottle to bring Cyrus out. The man is horrified who Cyrus once told him about has finally come and begins to panic. Cyrus insists he can help, but the man uses his last and final wish to send him to a far off land. Cyrus disappears back into his bottle and is transported into Wonderland. In a maze, his bottle lays untouched and hidden.
 * -|Before the Curse=

After some time, Cyrus receives quite the shock when a young girl, Alice, uncaps the top of his bottle and enters in. He inquires why she is in his bottle, to which Alice threatens if he reveals her location, she will become big and shatter his bottle. Cyrus smiles and says she should not do that as good bottles are hard to come by. As the two talk, Cyrus asks her why she is here, to which Alice states she needs proof Wonderland is real, and pulls the White Rabbit out of her bag. As she stuffs the rabbit back in, Cyrus asks who the proof is for, which Alice says it's for her father. He thinks it's sad she is risking her life for someone who doesn't believe in her and offers words of wisdom. Cyrus believes when you really love someone, proof isn't necessary and it's all about trusting in one's own belief. Sadly, Alice knows that's not how love works in her world, but Cyrus cheers her up by pointing out that since she opened his bottle, anything is possible. Thus, he offers to grant her three wishes.

Cyrus and Alice leave his bottle for the outside where he gives her three glittering red jewels, which are the wishes. After she frees the White Rabbit, Cyrus gives her some wish restrictions, which include the inability to wish for someone's death, bringing a person back from the dead, changing the past or making an individual fall in love. In asking what happens after the third wish, Alice learns he will return to his bottle until someone else finds it and repeat the whole process again with a new master. She ponders using a wish to free him, but he explains that has never ended well for either side because the bigger the wish, the larger the consequence. Still unsure what to wish for, they take a walk through the maze so he can give her some suggestions and end up at a tavern at night. Cyrus tells her about a man, Jafar, who has been chasing after him. Despite that she is a human and he a genie, they find common ground by both having been in prisons. For him, the outside world is a fresh stroke of freedom from the bottle while Alice's old home felt like a prison. Alice shows an interest in swordplay, though she doesn't know how. Cyrus doesn't see how one can survive without wielding a sword, so Alice illustrates that in place like Wonderland, there are other ways to fight by being creative. For her, he conjures an origami flower scented like a real rose bud. The conversation carries onto a sad note as Cyrus' previous masters all eventually make their wishes and move on. Glumly, Alice knows what it is like to be moved on from, too, but Cyrus lightens the mood by turning the bud into a blossom. Per Alice's request, he teaches her swordplay.

In the forest, they spar as Alice quickly becoming adept at the sword. She talks about learning how to play songs in under a week in the hopes of making her father happy, but he was too saddened over her mother's death. With her guard left down, he steals away her sword in the match. Cyrus prompts her to be creative, though she ends up backed up against a tree as he blocks her escape at every turn. Cyrus instructs her to have advantages by knowing who she is up against, and to his surprise, she kisses him, which he happily returns. At dawn, Cyrus watches Alice still sound asleep after spending a night under the Tum Tum Tree. To his dismay, he's quickly falling in love with her, which will make their parting all the more painful for him. When she awakens, Alice gushes about going to the Boiling Sea next, but he interrupts to suggest it's time for her to make the wishes. She is saddened by his response until he confesses his true feelings for her and what he fears at their eventual separation. Alice reciprocates her feelings back and to sooth his worries that she will change her mind, she promises to never move on from him if he does the same. Choosing love over the wishes, the two bury the bottle in a pasture near a dandy-lion sculpted tree.

Later, Cyrus and Alice arrive on another world after many adventures together, and admire the scenery at the cliff of the Boiling Sea. In her distraction, Alice nearly slips, but he catches her in time. Both express happiness at having met the other, to which Cyrus uses the moment to talk about the thousands of years spent granting the wishes of humans, and his only wish was for freedom, but now he has another. Even before Cyrus has the chance to begin his proposal speech, Alice, in delight, accepts and the two share a romantic kiss. Then, Cyrus shows Alice the necklace he wears, and tells her it will always shine when their hearts are near. Interrupted by the Red Queen and her guards, the two fight against them until only a few guards remain. However, Alice is held down while Cyrus is dragged away by them, so he breaks free to rescue her. However, before they can reunite and escape together, the Red Queen uses magic to push Cyrus off the cliff. To Alice, he appears to fall to his own death after disappearing past the sea's smoke, but in actuality, is saved by a flying magic carpet and taken prisoner in Jafar's lair.

Trapped in a silver cage in Jafar's lair, Cyrus wakes up sensing his love, Alice, nearby after she finds his necklace. Later, he reaches consciousness with the same sensation. At another hanging cage, a prisoner asks if he's alright. The man notices Cyrus' recent arm burns from attempting to reach outside the enclosure, which is impossible since the silver in the cage only causes bodily harm. Though the man tries to distract him with a makeshift chess game, Cyrus is disinterested; drawing a laugh from the latter who wonders if he has something better to do. An idea suddenly comes to mind as Cyrus takes out a piece of magical paper, scrawls a message to Alice and folds it into an origami crane. Then, he works up the nerve to push his own arm outside of the cage, though it is very painful, to release the crane into the air. It flies off as he tears his arm back into the confines of the cage. Cyrus watches it disappear out of the lair until he collapses in exhaustion, but suddenly Jafar storms in. Lowering the cage to ground level, Jafar magically grabs hold of Cyrus' neck while interrogating him about the bottle's location. To compel the truth out, Jafar tightens his grip on Cyrus, who challenges the sorcerer to kill him. Instead, Jafar poses a fate far worse, if not told where the bottle is, by allowing Cyrus to watch as he murders Alice in front of him. Stoically, Cyrus remains silent in defiance until the Red Queen appears from behind to state that she possesses the bottle. At this, Jafar releases Cyrus and turns around to confront her. Cyrus catches his breath as the two have an exchange; with Jafar being outsmarted and having no choice but to do as the Red Queen wants since she now holds the bottle.
 * -|After the Curse=

Cyrus is awoken as Jafar and the Red Queen dine at a nearby table. Jafar confronts him about a certain paper crane he found flitting about earlier on, and walks over to Cyrus' lowered cage to read him what it says. On the paper, Alice wrote back she is coming to rescue Cyrus. In the next step of their plan, the Red Queen begins flipping through a book to decide which terrifying creature to send after Alice so she will be forced to make her first wish. At the mention of the Bandersnatch, Cyrus fools Jafar, who is gauging his facial reactions to each beast the Red Queen names out loud, into thinking Alice's fate at the hands of the creature will not end well. In actuality, Cyrus once taught Alice how to overpower a Bandersnatch by using its weak eyesight to her own advantage. After the Bandersnatch is slayed, Jafar recognizes Alice did not actually make her first wish, and the beast was killed through other means. To himself, Cyrus happily praises Alice's cleverness.

As a guard lazily stands on watch duty in Jafar's lair, he snacks on meat. Cyrus notices and pleads that he hasn't eaten in days and would be grateful for even a morsel left on the bone. The guard relents and throws the remnant bone to Cyrus, who catches it. The other prisoner feels pity for Cyrus' hunger getting the best of him to the point of groveling. Yet, Cyrus turns around to show that it wasn't the food he wanted, but the wishbone. Cyrus splits the bone in half and begins sharping both so each has a pointy end. To test it, he pokes his finger with one, drawing blood, to make sure the bone is getting ground down enough. The guard catches sight that Cyrus is hiding something and orders him to show his hands. Cyrus does as he is told and the guard lets the subject drop after not seeing anything suspicious. However, the guard abruptly turns the switch to push down Cyrus' cage, forcing one of the bones to bounce out, to which he picks it up and lets it drop down to seemingly bottomless pit of the lair. All of a sudden, Cyrus feels Alice making her first wish. Jafar pays him a visit to gloat about it and how very soon he'll be back in his bottle. Though Cyrus' hard work in escaping and his spirits are dampened by Jafar, he still has another trick up his sleeve with the other half of the wishbone. He describes the origin of the wishbone as a myth genies made up to trick people into thinking they can grant their own wishes without a bottle. By breaking a wishbone, whoever possesses the larger half can make a wish, or so people believe. In actuality, a wishbone wants the same thing as what others desire; to be joined with their other half. Cyrus demonstrates by putting the halved wishbone through one of the gaps on the bottom of the cage as the other lost half rises from below to rejoin with its match in the same position on the outside side of the enclosure. As they stick together, Cyrus drags the wishbone in his hand to carve a way out of the cage.

Cyrus notices the old prisoner, who was previously forced out of his cage, is pushed back in. The man explains of the hard labor he was made to do and admits to possessing something Jafar wants, but doesn't say what it is. As he continues to use the wishbone to cut out the bottom of his cage, the old prisoner explains to him that the hallway leads to a staircase that only lead downwards. He says there are few guards inside, but this can mean Jafar has more of them set up outside of the lair. Cyrus thinks they can use the darkness at nightfall to their advantage for escaping. The prisoner is more worried about having witnessed others before him try to leave, but none have ever made it out. However, he believes Cyrus has enough determination to free himself from the circumstances. At Cyrus' mention of a loved one or family, the prisoner briefly reminisces about having a life once, but it's lost now. This is all the more reason that Cyrus wants to free him, too, so he can begin a new life. Cyrus kicks out the cut out bottom of his cage and swings the enclosure until he is at a near enough distance to make a jump for the platform. He barely makes it and almost loses his grip as a guard approaches to check up on them. Cyrus sneaks up on the guard from behind and pushes him down to the bottomless pit. Then, he throws the prisoner a set of keys to use one of them to free himself. Though the man catches the keys, he purposely drops it. The prisoner urges Cyrus to go on without him as he will only slow things down. Cyrus worries what will happen if he leaves him behind. The prisoner reassures that Jafar won't kill him, so Cyrus bids him a last farewell. In the hallway, Cyrus bumps into the White Rabbit and pleads for him not to tell Jafar. The White Rabbit allows him to leave, to which Cyrus finds his way outside of the lair.

After scaling down a wall, he escapes through the woods. To send his pursuers on the wrong path, he makes footprints leading to the river, but backtracks and hides in the bush as Jafar's guards pass by. His road to freedom ends at a cliff where the Red Queen corners him. She applauds him for the heroic endeavor to reach Alice, but the harsh reality is sometimes love is not enough. In the distance, Cyrus sees the glow of his necklace in Alice's possession. With his faith in Alice reinforced, he jumps into the sea. He lands at the shoreline unconscious, but groggily awakens.

Trivia

 * The casting call describes him as, "Middle Eastern, attractive and soulful. Though he's optimistic, which gives him a Zen dreaminess, he has an inner fire." He is also described as "Alice's love interest with a background shrouded in mystery."
 * The casting call name for him was "Amahl".