Board Thread:Fanon: Season 8 & Beyond/@comment-25551215-20191204022821/@comment-25551215-20191211043013

Daniel Francis books Once Upon a Time return – and your first look at the first three episodes

With the season premiere of Once Upon a Time airing tomorrow, we got to sit down with showrunner Hugo Schriftsteller again to discuss the first three episodes, which are slated to all be aired by Christmas Day. The recent SDCC scoop revealed a lot of key points from the episodes – but now we're looking directly ahead at the first few episodes.

FANDOM: First of all, we heard that Daniel Francis is booking a return as Dr. Facilier. What can you tell us about his return?

Schriftsteller: He is, but his role isn't what you think it is. The Shadow Raven is cunning and clever, and we're going to see him play into that in the present day, and his connection to Regina is going to be important the episode he returns. He's also showing up in flashbacks, but that's something you'll just have to see for yourself. We'll see that Facilier doesn't only take the role of Facilier.

F: Speaking of flashbacks, who're we going to see front and center in the past as the first three episodes progress?

S: Tomorrow's episode doesn't have any flashbacks; there are too many characters for that. But we're going to meet three characters tomorrow whose stories are told by episode three – Hester as well as Adam and Duncan, whose story, in true Once fashion, is twisted and turned from the original. Adam and Duncan's flashback is going to focus on how they got to where they were the first time we see them in episode one, and Hester's flashback is going to focus on how she got to the Land of Untold Stories to begin with.

F: And what about the present day? What's going on then?

S: Well, there's going to be a new baddie in town, and we're going to see that for once, everyone is clueless. They're going to get an opportunity to help figure out what's going on, but they're going to miss it completely. It's very interesting since none of them have a prior connection to the new villain, and they're completely in the dark. There's an air of mystery as we all try to figure out who the villain is, which becomes fairly clear by episode three, and more importantly, what their endgame is.

F: So what should viewers expect in each of the three episodes?

S: Well, tomorrow, expect to have many questions opened up. Really, the only big answer is the identities of Adam and Duncan, but everything else is left a mystery, and we get to see those stories unfold throughout the first half and into the second. We're going to meet all the new characters by the halfway point. By the end of the episode, you're hopefully going to be on the edge of your seats waiting for what's next. In episode two, you get to see a classic story unfold with a twist – but I'll warn you now, don't assume the story is already over because of some of the parallels. The Land of Untold Stories puts stories on pause, and as we're going to see, that story resumes in episode two. There's also some pretty intense stuff going on. In episode three, we're going to find out a bit more about what we're up against. I'm excited. I had a lot of aha! moments writing the episodes, and I hope the viewers will too."

Tune in tomorrow on Disney+ as Once Upon a Time makes its grand return.