Board Thread:Fanon: Season 8 & Beyond/@comment-25551215-20180529024627/@comment-25551215-20180808191346

'Once Upon a Time' creators tease about Once's future at San Diego Comic Con

Once Upon a Time's creators and cast headed to San Diego Comic Con on 21st July at a panel devoted to the eighth season, which had been mostly spoiled by a leaks website, hence the secrecy surrounding the final six or so episodes of the season. The creators and cast had a lot to say about the season and the series' future. Below are some of the highlights of the panel.


 * Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis on the future of Once Upon a Time: "Season Eight is definitely the last season of the series. This season, we're taking all these classic characters for one last adventure in Storybrooke, but at the end of the season, it'll all be over. Who knows? Maybe something incredible will happen and we'll get to see Storybrooke again. We can't say."
 * Rebecca Mader on her character's arc: "Once has always been about redemption and family, and second chances, all that, and I think we're going to see a lot of that this season with Zelena. In Season 7 we got to see Regina and Zelena team up and be heroes, and we're going to see more of that with Zelena in Season 8. Zelena gets to be the hero and we get to see how much she's grown. But there's still some growth for her in the future and we do see that she still does have some things she needs to answer for, and we're going to see that in her centric episodes."
 * Dania Ramirez on her character's arc: "This season, we're going to see that Jacinda will be part of the team keeping everyone safe from the villains, and we're also going to get to see her be part of a family with Henry and Lucy. There's also an episode that shows us a bit more about the Henry-Cinderella dynamic and the dynamic she's got with two guest characters we're seeing again from last year, Lady Tremaine (guest star Gabrielle Anwar), and Ivy (guest star Adelaide Kane). I think that while Jacinda doesn't play as big of a role this season, she's still got a great and really exciting arc."
 * Andrew J. West on Season Eight and his character's arc: "I think this season is great. We've got a lot of old faces coming back, but also a few new faces here and there, especially in the second half. We're going to see Emma, Regina, the Charmings, and even Rumbelle quite a few times this season. We also see the younger wish me a few times. If you've been paying attention to the spoilers, you'll know that we're gonna be seeing more guest stars return than ever before. We'll see Elsa, Ariel, Peter Pan -- I think even some people we haven't seen since season one or two have appearances this season too. And it's really interesting what Henry does this year. He's got a family now and he gets to be a hero. While Regina and Emma and the Charmings have duties and jobs to get to, Henry quickly finds out that his duty is to be a hero along with Zelena and the rest of our hero team. It's actually like The Avengers meets Disney, and Henry gets to be our Captain America."
 * Rose Reynolds and Tiera Skovbye on their characters' arc: Rose reveals, “Alice is just as quirky as she was last year, and she gets some really great scenes this year. She and Margot are going to get married early in the season, and we really get to see a lot of the dynamic between Tilly and Margot this season, and it’s really exciting. We hope you enjoy their story this season. They also do get a bigger part this season.”
 * “It really is a Once love story. Maybe we'll even get to see Robin hit Alice in the head with a rock," Tiera laughs. "But I think the important thing is that their relationship grows this season, and we really see them bonding and being a really awesome couple. It's really cute. We also get to see some scenes between Robin and her mom, and it's really cool. They get closer and their mother-daughter dynamic is kinda like Snow and Emma's, and we get to see them fighting the bad guys together. They also have some heart-to-hearts, and there's some drama related to how Robin was conceived and the role Zelena played in that."
 * Mekia Cox on Season Eight and her character's arc: “Tiana gets a bit of a bigger role this year, and we get to see her be the badass princess she is. What’s really cool about this season is that it’s a mix of new and old. We get to see characters that we haven't seen on a show last time. But enough about that, I think what the audience wants to hear is what's really going on in Season 8? And what's really happening is that everyone has a happy beginning, but there are two villains who want to change that. One in the first half, which is evil Zelena, and the other is in the second half. And naturally, we're going to rally the forces and save the world again from fairy-tale villains."
 * Colin O'Donoghue on Season Eight and his character's arc: "We're going to be seeing some old friends, and there will be some scenes between Rogers and the original versions of characters, where he realizes that the Wish Realm version of things was different from the reality, and we'll get some glimpses as to Wish characters with his dialogues. We also get a great arc with him and Alice, and they finally get to be a family now that the curse on his heart has been broken. We're going to see that he's really grateful that he gets to be with his daughter again. He also does get a romance subplot with another character, which is really interesting. They have a great dynamic and they've got some chemistry, but of course, it doesn't take precedence for either characer. We're also going to see that he's made some decisions he regrets, and he's going to try to atone for those mistakes."
 * The creators on Season Eight: “Season Eight doesn’t really bring in a lot of new romances or characters because the core theme this season is ‘resolution’, and we deal with a lot of past characters and past storylines. We will find out why Henry’s married to Jacinda and not Violet, we’ll find out what happened to Cinderella’s mom from last season, we’ll find out how Elsa and Anna defeated Hans and what happened after. We see a lot of things this season, and we hope you stay for the whole ride. The series finale will be quite rewarding — we’re going to see new and old together in a very familiar place."
 * Rebecca Mader on Zelena's future and the future of Once: "Zelena finally has a family and she gets to play the hero. She also gets a romance with Nook — and the reason why she isn’t with Chad does get addressed in one of the episodes. It’s actually pretty tragic. But we get to see her become happy and conquer the Wicked Witch. It’s like Regina, season six, but supes different. It’s brilliant. I’ve heard some talks to continue Once in some capacity, and if they really are true, I’m definitely signing up for that!"
 * The creators on the back half of the season: “The autumn half is going to be about the Wish Wicked Witch, but the second half is going to be a real whopper. We get to see someone we ‘’thought’’ was good turn out to be evil, but it’s not just a sudden twist out of nowhere. We will see their backstory and why they are the way they were, and why they’re only just now doing evil. The story we tell for that character is really interesting, and it’s tied in to one of the new characters we’re introducing this season. Can this character be redeemed? Well, only time will tell. We hope you stay tuned to see their story."
 * The creators on guest stars this season: “This season primarily features returning guest stars such as Emma Booth, who plays Mother Gothel, Georgina Haig, who plays Elsa, and Victoria Smurfit, who plays Cruella. Of course, there's a lot more characters we get to see again, including the Charmings, Hook, Wish Henry, Belle, Rumple, and Regina, and it's interesting how they play into the season. But we do have some special guests we see this season: we have Oprah playing Mama Odie from Princess and the Frog, Jenna Coleman from Doctor Who playing someone from Zelena's past, and we've also got Jodie Whittaker guest starring in one of our episodes as the mysterious Storyteller. And we're also introducing Moana this season, and her arc is tied directly into the main storyline. We hope you stay tuned and like the story we tell with these old and new characters."

The creators also screened an exclusive trailer featuring footage from both halves of the season, as well as this parting tidbit: "We're not going to say 'never' about a continuation or a spinoff of Once. What we can say is that there's an announcement we held back, and it's really incredible. We hope you all get excited when you hear it."

A transcript of the trailer will be released a bit after this article.