Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-1916997-20160108213203/@comment-24674051-20160110060652

The Gaston from Season 1 was in all of 2 scenes, and one was only long enough for Rumple to transform him into a Rose. So maybe 1 minute of actual on screen time at the most. Tom Ellis (Robin Hood) had much more screen time, and was much more essential to the episode he appeared in, so while the writers might not have had to explain the recasting, the effort was worth it.

Explaining the recast here is just pointless. They recast, let's just 'Let It Go!' at that. He's likely going play a bigger part in the Belle Episode this time around, so I'm fine with updating the casting.