Examiner: Creators Promise to ‘Tame The Beast’ Next Season

Allison Nichols: Anytime you think you know where it’s going, the show goes in a different direction

Edward Kitsis: That’s part of the fun is you are always trying to lead people. We wanted people to believe we were going to the enchanted forest. We wanted them to believe that Greg and Tamara had no, you know, I think one of the fun for us is that we knew we were going to Neverland, and so we wanted to introduce this home office and this secret organization, and people, you know had people believe it had nothing to do with our world or with the enchanted forest, and lo it behold, it turns out they don’t realize their boss is Peter Pan.

Most of the episodes it’s a flashback and then Storybrooke. Now you’ve got people on The Jolly Roger, Henry over there, Neal’s alive in the enchanted forest, and you’ve got Storybrooke. Do you have any idea of how you are going to set that up?

Adam Horowitz: Yeah we do, and it’s something we want to keep as a surprise as to how we unfold it, but what we can say to the audience is that we are taming the beast.

EK: You do not have to sit there with a chart and pause and go: “Wait a minute, where am I, which world?”

AH: Our conception is, and I hope we can succeed with this, is that the audience can tune in, and it will be very clear in a very linear way where we’re going, who we’re with, and what we’re exploring, so that it’s not a flow chart situation.

EK: The other thing that we’re very excited about, is airing the show in two segments, so for us, as writers, we’re really approaching this like two seasons. We’re going to show eleven episodes in fall nonstop, and then eleven in spring, and so for us, this first eleven is going to be really focused on our core characters and their journey, and really as Adam said, taming the beast. We’re not going to make it so crazy that you’re looking around for eight different timelines.

AH: There’s a fine line in complexity and confusing. We love the show to be complex, but we never want it to be confusing. We want it to be a story that is super engaging and that has different levels to it, and that is something that you can jump into it.

Do you have something that you are very excited about for next season?

EK: We’re really excited about Neverland. We’re really excited about the people that are on that boat that are now going to be forced to work together, and I think that, you know for us, there were a lot of things introduced in season two that we really get to explore. One of them was that Emma had magic, and so much was happening that she really didn’t get to stop and say, “Why do I have this? What the hell is going on with me, and do I even like magic?” Emma called Snow and Charming mom and dad when she thought her life was over. How does that affect everything? I think, for us, we’re really excited to have these characters dive into what makes them who they are, and you know, and I think this situation with Henry is going to force them to become who they are, you know? Now we’re going to need Snow to become Bandit Snow. She needs to be tough. Charming needs to whip the sword out. Emma needs to be the savior. Rumple, as he said, he’s going to go dark for this, which is why he didn’t want Belle to see what he was about to do, and Regina is a wildcard. We never know which way she is going to go.

AH: You know the show is ultimately about the characters, so we think what we’ve been able to do is create a situation where the characters who have always been in conflict with each other now have been thrown together in a way where we can delve deeper into them and into their relationships, and into who they are. That was one of the things we are most excited about with this season, really digging deeper and exploring these characters.

EK: You know for us it’s fun because of the eleven episodes. We’re going to tell you a journey. We can really tell you a condensed story with a beginning, middle, and end for the first eleven and for the second eleven, and we’re really excited to do that, and we’re really excited for the fans not to have the interruption. I know last year they would air five minutes and then not again for four weeks, so…that was fun.

[Read the rest of the article on Examiner’s Site with more information on Emma’s backstory, exploring new places, the introduction of Peter Pan, and more.]

TVGuide: Can the Charmings and their Foes Work Together to Save Henry?

“What’s exciting to us is what happens when you take characters who have been at each other’s throats from the beginning and give them a common goal and throw them together on a little pirate ship,” executive producer Adam Horowitz tells TVGuide.com. 

This journey to rescue Henry will force each member of the ragtag group to channel what executive producer Edward Kitsis calls their “core character.” “Snow needs to be Bandit Snow, the Snow we saw who wielded the sword in the beginning,” he says. “Emma is going to need to be the savior. Rumplestiltskin is going to have to be the dark one. Prince Charming needs to be Prince Charming right now.”

What that means for Regina — the former Evil Queen who succeeded in her attempt to get redemption when she planned to sacrifice herself to save Storybrooke in last season’s finale — and her quest to be good remains to be seen. Just because Kitsis didn’t mention her, doesn’t mean she won’t need to channel her dastardly evil side on their mission to retrieve Henry. “One of my favorite things is when Regina says, ‘Everyone thinks I’m the Evil Queen. Let me die as Regina,’” Kitsis says of the season finale. “This is before they took her son, so right now, on that ship, she’ll do whatever it takes to get her son back. If that means Regina is required, she’ll be Regina, but if that means the Evil Queen is required, watch out.” 

“I don’t think Regina thinks of it in terms of good and evil the way the other characters look at her and paint her with those strokes,” Horowitz adds. “Regina thinks about it in terms of what she wants, what her pain is, what she needs and how she’s going to get it. How everyone else interprets it is on them.”

[Read the rest of the article with more information on Season Three on TV Guide’s Site]

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EOnline: Bosses Dish on Peter Pan and Season 3’s Epic Adventure

“The show is a messed-up family show at its core,” Horowitz explains of the decision to end season two with all of its characters forced to work together, “and that’s what’s great about it for us: how are these characters connected and how can they be related and semi-related.”

Through the group’s adventure to Neverland, Kitsis tells us its “exciting” for the writers to tackle questions such as, “How are they all going to influence each other?  Emma has magic and some people on that boat wield magic, but they’re not good influences. How are they going to work together? How are they going to get along?”

Horowitz and Kitsis are hoping to use the journey to the new world as a way to peel back more layers to its central characters. “it’s about taking new lands, like Neverland, and using it as a way to open up our characters and dive deeper; taking the villains and heroes and throwing them together and forcing them to a common goal as a method for us to dig deeper and find out more about what makes them tick.”

Aside from family feuds and seasickness, there will also be time for a bit of romance, like some development in the love triangle between Emma, Hook and Bae (Michael Raymond-James, who has been upped to series regular for season three). “It’s fun for us to have Emma on that ship with someone as handsome as Hook thinking the person she truly loves is dead, while he’s trying to get back to her,” Kitsis teases.

[Read the rest of the article on EOnline’s site with information on Peter Pan, Rumplestiltskin’s past with him, and shifting back to the focus on the core characters.]

Huffington Post: Season Three Preview

On how Season 3 will begin:
Horowitz: It’s pretty much a direct pickup … What you saw at the end of the finale is a jumping off point: Some characters are on the boat, some characters are in Storybrooke. [The beginning of Season 3 focuses on] what they’re facing and how they’re going to deal with new challenges, particularly having a lot of our hero characters and our villain characters forced to work together.
Kitsis: The major difference is that there are characters who are separated, but for us, what’s interesting is that you see this motley crew on this ship and you wonder how they’re going to work together. You’ve got that core dysfunctional family on the ship heading to Neverland to get back Henry — so they’re separated in a different way.
Horowitz: We have characters left behind in Storybrooke, like Belle and those folks, and what they’re going through, so we’ve hopefully created a situation where the dramatic stakes are heightened, but they allow us to delve deeper into each of the characters and use the next season to really go into how they’re going to react to these new situations.

On the different plot and scheduling formats for next season:
Kitsis: One of the things that we’re most excited about is that — and I know that the audience loves when the show is off the air for four weeks — this year, we’re going to do 11 episodes in fall, and 11 in spring, and we’re approaching it like two seasons. The first 11 is a very focused, contained beginning, middle and end journey for these characters.
Horowitz: The plan currently is that it will run sometime starting in the fall through December, then come off and come back in the spring for 11 [episodes] straight.

On a potential romance between Hook and Emma (Jennifer Morrison):
Kitsis: The thing I liked about Captain Hook in the finale is, he started to look back on his life and was like, “Maybe I’ve wasted it?” So here you’ve got a guy that wants a new chance. And I think being surrounded by all these characters last year, and even seeing his nemesis happy with someone else made him realize that, “Maybe after all these 100 years, I need to get over Milah.” So who knows? They’re on the ship together and Emma thinks Neal’s dead …

[Read on Huffington Post’s Site for the rest of the article containing info on if Rumplestiltskin will seek redemption, Rumbelle, Snow’s dark heart, good versus evil, and if we’ll see a LGBT character]

Mega Buzz: The ‘Home Office’

Do you have any scoop on the “home office” on Once Upon a Time? — Jennie
NATALIE: The home office wanted to destroy magic in our world, but that doesn’t mean that Peter Pan isn’t part of it. Speaking of the mysterious organization, executive producer Adam Horowitz promises pay-off. “We’re going to explain pretty quickly what it is and how, as we showed in the finale, Greg and Tamara were unwittingly working for Peter Pan, and how that all connects.” It was curious that they were so against magic, right?

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(Source: traveling-in-thoughts)

Wetpaint: Full Coverage of the ATX Festival

Meanwhile, back in Storybrooke…

Don’t worry Oncers, the folks left in Storybrooke, including Belle, will not be forgotten. In fact, Adam said the show will delve deeper into each of the characters back in Storybrooke and will examine how they’ll react to situations. Sounds interesting! The characters in Storybrooke have always been so dependent on the Charmings, so it will be interesting to see how the Storybrooke residents reacts to not having their fearless leaders to look up to. Perhaps this means someone new will step up to become the town’s protector?

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