Zelena

"Love, you've faced certain danger, armed only with that. And it is love that makes you so daring, so brave, so utterly fearless."

- Hook to Zelena

Zelena, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the twelfth episode of the third season. She is portrayed by guest stars Rebecca Mader and Isabella Blake-Thomas. She is the original counterpart of Kelly West.

The Wicked Witch of the West is based on the character of the same name from the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She is also an allusion to Persephone from Greek Mythology, and to the Enchantress from the Disney film Beauty and the Beast.

Trivia

 * -|Character Notes=

Etymology

 * The name "Zelena" means "green" in various Slavic languages.
 * It was her adoptive mother who named her "Zelena".
 * The name "Wicked" originally comes from her adoptive father, as he always depicted her as wicked because of her use of magic.

Character Notes

 * Zelena is featured in the title card for "Witch Hunt".
 * After Regina takes back her mother's old spell book from Mr. Gold, he warns her against the potential effects of the book's magic. She responds, "I don't care if they turn me green"; an early reference to the Wicked Witch of the West.


 * -|Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * The role of Zelena was written specifically for Rebecca Mader.
 * Rebecca Mader's scenes as the Wicked Witch were filmed with a blue background screen rather than the typical green screen, which used for other characters during filming, because her green make-up blends too much into the green screen.
 * At least five different shades of green are used to make Rebecca Mader's skin green for her role as the Wicked Witch. Incidentally, Rebecca Mader also later stated in another interview that seven shades of green are used.
 * In the episode "A Curious Thing", Rebecca Mader filmed the flying broomstick scene without a stunt double.
 * The casting call for her younger self describes her as "11-13 to PLAY 12. Has not yet transformed into the evil, Wicked Witch of Oz. Wretchedly poor and despised by her father for her magical gifts, Zelena only wishes to escape her terrible fate. And then, one day, she discovers that the key to that escape may actually be in the magic he loathes so much. Giving her a chance to prove her worth, and change her life forever..."
 * Isabella Blake-Thomas' hair was dyed red to match her older self.
 * She was supposed to appear in the Season Six episode "Tougher Than the Rest", however, her scenes were cut for unknown reasons.
 * 50-pound baby dolls were used to portray her daughter Robin in some scenes of Season Five and Six. According to Rebecca Mader, it was really hard to hold a doll with one hand, while doing something else with the other hand. When she was shooting long scenes, she ended up loosing the feeling in the shoulder holding the doll.


 * -|Cultural References=

Lost

 * Zelena's birthday is April 15, or 4/15, two of the Lost numbers.

Popular Culture

 * When Zelena is carrying Prince Neal to her house, she hums the lullaby "Hush, Little Baby".
 * The scene where Mr. Gold's heart stops and Zelena says "What a beautiful echo" is a reference to The Wizard of Oz scene where Dorothy bangs on the Tin Woodman's chest and the Scarecrow says, "Beautiful! What an echo".
 * Zelena refers to Oz as the land "over the rainbow". This is the feature song by Judy Garland from the 1939 The Wizard of Oz film.
 * The book Zelena is reading at the psychiatric ward, is What to Expect When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff.
 * The way Zelena calls Dorothy "my pretty" and the way Zelena asks Cora if she is a "good witch" is a reference from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
 * When arriving in the Land of Untold Stories, Zelena says, "We're certainly not in Storybrooke anymore", a reference to Dorothy's line from the film, "I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
 * When Zelena is putting together a baby crib, she says that she's just been soundly defeated by Sniglar and adds that she didn't name it, but IKEA did; a reference to the famous furniture retailer. Sniglar is the name of the baby crib from IKEA.


 * -|Set Notes=

Props Notes

 * The chest where she keeps David's sword and Regina's heart has "To: W. B S[image ends] 14-25-27th West" written on the lid.
 * Alchemical signs for the four elements are carved into the table and the stone pillars where Zelena and her fellow sister witches are gathered. Fittingly enough, the element of Wicked Witch of the West (downward-pointing triangle) is water, which is also associated with the west
 * The design on Zelena's compass is the same as the witches' table in Oz except that the colors are different. The back on the chairs around the table and the illustration on the cover of the Book of Records have the same design.
 * Robin's sonogram of Zelena's baby is green.
 * The icing on Zelena's birthday cake is green.
 * The drink that the Evil Queen offers Zelena is green apple martini.
 * When Mr. Gold pays the Evil Queen a visit, a red apple martini and a green apple martini are sitting on Zelena's table.
 * When Zelena prepares to leave Storybrooke with Robin of Locksley, her suitcases are green.
 * A monkey key chain is attached to the car keys that Regina gives Zelena, a reference to the Flying Monkeys.
 * The car Regina gives to Zelena is a green Ford Pinto Cruising Wagon.

Set Dressing

 * There is a bicycle with a basket in Zelena's porch, which references Miss Gulch, the Wicked Witch of the West's Kansas counterpart, from the 1939 The Wizard of Oz film, who has a similar bicycle.
 * When Zelena is in Regina's office, planning to take over her job, the apples on the table are green instead of Regina's red ones.

Costume Notes

 * The dress Zelena steals from her sister is the one Regina was wearing in "Hat Trick".
 * The yellow coat that Zelena wears when she's posing as Ariel is the same coat worn by Belle in "Heroes and Villains" and "Enter the Dragon".
 * -|Goofs=

Goofs

 * In "It's Not Easy Being Green", when Zelena is dressing up, she has green gloves on. When she puts the necklace on, the gloves are missing, but reappear when she catches the hat.
 * In "The Brothers Jones", the drawing of Hades and Zelena that can be seen in one of the storybook pages Hades had Liam Jones rip off for him depicts Zelena with a different shade of green than the usual one. However, a different page was made for "Our Decay", with her skin properly painted emerald green.
 * For the previously on Once Upon a Time part of "Our Decay", the scene was edited to make her look greener in the drawing.
 * In "Our Decay", when Zelena is taking the Scarecrow's brain, her skin is not entirely green.
 * -|Other Notes=

Other Notes

 * In the original book by L. Frank Baum, it is never stated that the Wicked Witch of the West has green skin. The character's peculiar skin tone was invented for the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, and has since become a tradition that has been continued in many literary and dramatic representations of the Wicked Witch of the West, including Once Upon a Time.

Appearances
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.