Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4911992-20140522151443/@comment-24674051-20140929212329

True, but it's also not easy to foreshadow a character that you may or may not actually use, or you don't know about up front. If the writing is worth anything at all, there will not be random forshadowing, but only forshadowing of things that make sense and move the plot forward in some way.

Just because they know a character is out in the world somewhere (say for example Goldilocks) does not mean that they will ever foreshadow that character. They may plan to never use that character. And somewhere down the line, something comes up where that character is what would be needed (to move the story forward). They introduce character to move the story forward, no foreshadowing.

Plus, they did not know that Elsa and Anna existed prior to the release of Frozen last year. And while it is out of left field, I personally agree with their view that the characters could fit in with the rest of OUaT. So they got permission in February to move forward with a story arc to include the Frozen story. By that point they probably had most of the scripts, and a lot of filming, completed for the Wicked arc, with not much time to build a respectable forshadowing. The creators themselves said that they had a different ending lined up for the finale, and changed to this surprise one, late in the game.