The Hook that we meet is trying to be the best uniform cop that he can be, but as is always the case on ‘Once Upon a Time,’ it’s more complicated than that!” O’Donoghue says. So he’s striving to find who he is still. “There’s a sense of loss there in the guy that I like to think he just doesn’t know what it is, what’s missing. When the show picks up with Hook minus the love of his life, he is very different from the other versions of the character O’Donoghue has played. “Episode two is going to answer what has happened with Emma and Captain Hook, and episode four is going to answer for Belle,” Kitsis says. And they promise long-time viewers of the show will get answers as to what happened to some of the partners of characters that are still on the show. However, neither Horowitz nor Kitsis is looking to undo or rewrite any of the histories or happy endings of the characters the audience came to know and love in the first six seasons. Hopefully it will be refreshing for the audience to come in and start with new chapters.” “With the new stories we’re not so beholden to that old mythology. “It’s a mix of characters the audience has grown to love over the years but also bring in new characters and be able to tell new origin stories,” executive producer Adam Horowitz says. That means that Lana Parrilla, Colin O’Donoghue, and Robert Carlyle are back for season seven, but in a new way - and also a new location in Seattle from the small, fictional town of Storybrooke. “Henry has found himself in a new book with new characters, and he’s called on some of his friends like Captain Hook and Rumplestiltskin and his mom, the Evil Queen, to join him,” Kitsis says. And with Cinderella of course comes a new ensemble that includes her evil stepmother (Gabrielle Anwar) and wicked stepsister (Adelaide Kane). West) getting a knock on his door from his child, Lucy (Allison Hernandez), who needs help to save beloved characters, including her mother, Cinderella (Dania Ramirez). Henry is now the grown-up (played by Andrew J. Now, though, the show will shift focus to put a similar twist on another classic Disney princess. Years after that event, Emma (Morrison) had a child of her own, Henry (Gilmore), who came to find her to save the characters from his book from the curse. When “Once Upon a Time” first launched in 2011, the central story was that of Snow White (Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Dallas) and the daughter they saved from a curse by pushing her through a magical portal to the real world. “We were coming from ‘Lost’ so we thought of a five-year plan, and I think around Season 4 we wanted to write toward our own endpoint, and if the show was successful enough, or the network had interest, then we would reboot it,” executive producer Edward Kitsis says.
At the end of the sixth season, series stars Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, Jared Gilmore, and Emilie de Ravin all exited, paving the way for new cast and characters. When “ Once Upon a Time” returns to ABC this fall, the fairytale drama is going to look very different.