Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-24304025-20150202171011/@comment-4839682-20150417154022

We have to remember that "starring", especially on this show, is about having a contract rather than having a major role in the story (it's counterintuitive, ofc) Meghan Ory is a valuable, good, popular actress so they put her under a contract during season 2 (which was a smart move) and didn't renew it for s3 because of Intelligence. Same with Emilie de Ravin, except she's still here. XD

I assume that Michael Socha and his agent would have made sure a "starring" credit/contract was part of his move to OUaT-- he was starring on that show (and central to the plot) so you wouldn't want to "go down" to guest starring in that manner.

tl,dr: "starring" doesn't always mean "major to the plot" XD