Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-26830263-20160302221846/@comment-27213286-20160303091906

Wicked Wizard of the West wrote: A lot of characters from 1001 Arabian Nights can be used: Aladdin, (Jasmine), Jafar (bring his bottle back), Ali Baba, Cassim (found Jafar's bottle in the thieves' lair), Scheherazade (make her a previous Author), Sinbad (involved in Hook's past)... But of course the cast will be too large then if they still do the half-season thingy. I hope they'll use the arabian theme for the whole season, resolving Will Scarlet's story as well.

And please don't white-wash the characters. Watching Gods of Egypt is painful enough. Seeing how they have already cast Jafar and other characters from Agrabah I doubt they would white-wash any other character from there that make an appearance. They have for the most part been good at keeping the original nationality of characters they have used e.g. Belle being (half) French, Ursula being black (as implyed I think from the Disney movie which was the first time I believe she was given a name), Merida being Scottish, etc. One of the few wrong nationalities I see on the show is Mulan being cast by a Korean actress instead of Chinese, I guess they figured as long as the got someone who was Asian most people wouldn't care.

Exploring different parts of 1001 Nights would be a perfect way for them to gain some diversity without having to change the original race of any characters. Out of all the ways I have heard peopl talking about how they could diverse the cast more I feel like that one would feel most natural.

I do see more potential in exploring Land Without Color than exploring Agrabah though. So many more characters and source material could be used there. Only problem with it is that I feel like the powerful magic Regina, Rumple, and Emma (she still has her light magic right?) would be able to easily defeat the Villains that came from there. I think it would either have to be many threats at once to spread the heroes thin, misunderstood villains that are struggling with recently becoming a monster and need to be helped and not taken out, make the villain hide in the shadows commiting their crimes so the heroes are not sure who to go after (feel like that one could end up kinda boring), or they would have to add some sort of magical element to the villain e.g. Dracula impervious to magic so they have to take him out the old fashion way (silver stake through the heart I think for him). Not sure how a character like Frollo or Nurse Ratched (who is already a character on the show if memory serves correct) would be able to put up much of a fight against magic.