Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25896389-20160524033547/@comment-25971187-20160524055401

Sean mentioned that the creators (A&E) told him around the taping days of 5x12 that he's going to die in the arc, so there's that.

However, if he was not killed off, the writers need to find another cause that will give Regina the idea that she will forever be damned because she was a villain, thus, another bad thing could have happened that will push her to split herself from the Evil Queen.