Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-6175354-20141215234519/@comment-24674051-20141216164250

One of the things that I saw between the tvline interview, and another interview on Entertainment Weekly is that they intend on spending more time working with the main cast, and less on trying to bring in new characters. Between the main cast (Snow, Charming, Emma, Hook, Henry, Belle, Gold, Regina), the Regulars (Robin, Archie, Granny, Leroy and friends, Will), and throw in the recurring characters (Ariel, Whale, Ruby, Maleficent, Cinderella, Tinker Bell, and others that I may not be thinking of), the have a killer cast. They don't need to go and pull an outside storyline, like Neverland, Oz, or Frozen. Some of the best scenes in have not been with the additional characters, but with the core group Interacting with each other.

Don't get me wrong, I like the other characters (sometimes), but they can also be a distraction. Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Zelena, even Peter Pan, were great as characters (and in all cases were cast very well), but their presence did take away from the interaction of the main characters.

Depending on how they go with the Author arc, they could have a good premise to work with for several seasons. Emma's role as Savior has been better defined now as someone who will make sure that everyone gets their happy endings (or at least all the heroes), and she is going to be working against those forces that try to prevent others from getting their happy endings.

Bringing the Queens of Darkness may very well be a stroke of Genius, providing they don't kill these ladies off (if they were to elevate one or more of them to a series regular status). Between them and Rumple, you could have various one-off stories of one or maybe two episodes where the antagonist(s) tries to get their happy ending at the expense of one or more of the main core, and is stopped by one of the heroes. There are story lines aplenty in that approach, and I think it can still provide a cohesive framework from which to expand and build on the core characters.