Once Upon a Time‘s Rumpelstiltskin is arguably broadcast TV’s most extreme character, a devilish, vindictive, childish wizard who offers to fulfill desperate wishes “for a price.” Actor Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, 28 Weeks Later) plays fairy tale land’s Rumple and his sober Storybrooke alter ego Mr. Gold, and put plenty of thought into the creation of both characters. Here’s some secrets about both, and be sure to check out this Sunday’s episode, which features a key Rumple storyline. Also, hey look at this week’s cover of Entertainment Weekly — it’s Once Upon a Time!

Origins: “I knew Rumpelstiltskin’s name but I didn’t know anything else about him,” Carlyle says. “Everyone thinks they know Rumpelstiltskin but they don’t really. The lines I was given to perform seemed to be begging to be taken as far from normality as possible. I thought, ‘The braver the [performance] better.’”

The voice: “There’s no way I could speak in my normal voice while looking so extraordinary and while having this bizarre stuff to say,” the actor reasoned. “I tried many different types of voices and the thing that I landed on was completely by chance, really, thanks to my son. He was wandering though the house making these high-pitched voices and sounds I thought, ‘Rumpelstiltskin has a child-like quality to him, he kind of enjoys gleefully tricking people.’” READ FULL STORY »

Captain Hook is jumping on board Once Upon a Time full time.

ABC and producers just upgraded Colin O’Donoghue to a series regular for the season’s “back nine” hours — even before his character’s first episode has aired.

The Irish actor (The Rite) was originally signed for a recurring role on the Sunday night hit fantasy drama. Given the swooning fan reaction to our first photo of Hook posted this morning, we can’t say we’re surprised by this decision. Guess the producers must have liked what they were seeing from O’Donoghue on set too. We’ll meet Hook in the Oct. 21 episode, which is titled “The Crocodile.” Last season, producers similarly upgraded Emilie de Ravin’s Belle from a recurring role to series regular.

UPDATE: Here’s a statement from Once Upon showrunners Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz: “We are great admirers of Colin’s talent and of the way he portrays Hook. We’ve much more story to tell with the his character that we’re excited to share with the audience.”

Here’s ABC’s preview of the rest of the season: READ FULL STORY »

We caught a quick glimpse of The Captain’s face in ABC’s season preview following last Sunday’s premiere, but the below photo is the first full and clear look at Once Upon a Time‘s most anticipated new character. Plus, we have some fresh details about his introduction.

We’ll meet Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) in the Oct. 21 episode, which is titled “The Crocodile” (nice). We will see Hook’s origin story. And that’s why this photo, like the glimpse in Sunday’s preview, still doesn’t reveal Hook in all his glory. Because this is a shot of the famous pirate before … certain things happen … and he becomes the man we all know. Check it out, below. And see yesterday’s interview with the Once Upon showrunners on how Emma is shaking up fairy tale land.

UPDATE: O’Donoghue upgraded to ‘Once Upon’ series regular (that was fast!)

READ FULL STORY »

The conclusion of Sunday’s Once Upon a Time premiere gave fans a twist: Emma was transported to fairy tale land, along with her newly realized mother, Snow White.

EW.com talked to the Once Upon showrunners and actress Jennifer Morrison (Emma) about this development a few weeks ago. Though we haven’t seen the next episode, I think we’re all safely assuming that Mulan, who found the duo unconscious, isn’t going to slaughter the show’s stars in their sleep (as stunning of a plot twist as that would be). Don’t worry, we’re not revealing what happens to Emma in fairy tale land or how long she’s there, but the producers and cast make some interesting big picture points about the advantages of having a stranger in a strange land this season.

“We can do fairy tale land stories this year with a new element that can react to things in a way we haven’t been able to do before,” said executive producer Adam Horowitz. READ FULL STORY »

The new season of last year’s biggest breakout new drama Once Upon a Time will be more ambitious and more intense, particularly during the first batch of season 2 episodes, say showrunners Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Below, the writer-producers tease Sunday’s premiere and beyond (don’t worry, no spoilers here), talk about the overall changes coming to the show, and reveal what they absolutely cannot do with Cinderella.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First, talk about the decision to end the first season with something people thought would end the series — breaking the curse.
ADAM HOROWITZ: We never thought of this show as the “breaking the curse” show. There were places we wanted to go beyond that. We knew people would think that [storyline] is something that’s going to drag on for years.

But you couldn’t tell viewers it was going to get broken or else it would have spoiled the finale.
EDWARD KITSIS: Breaking the curse at the end of season 1 was always the goal because it felt like it would enable us to dig deeper in season 2 about who these people are.

HOROWITZ: There were two big things in season 1 for us: Breaking the curse and Emma believing — which was the other thing I could sense the audience was going to get impatient about.

KITSIS: And her [revelation] had to come from Henry. He had to make her believe. It couldn’t just be, ‘Oh my God, Ruby, you’re right!’

HOROWITZ: There’s so much we feel like we can do with these characters now that the curse is broken, now that they know who they are. Whereas season 1, to us, it felt like it built to get us to this place.

With the curse broken, are they still trapped in Storybrooke? READ FULL STORY »

Image Credit: Getty Images

A veteran of Pretty Little Liars and The X-Files is signing on for a guest-star role on ABC’s Once Upon a Time.

Annabeth Gish has been cast as ‘Anita’ the seventh episode of the second season. She’s described as a charismatic, beautiful and mysterious leader of a pack of humans who — like Red — turn out to be wolves.

Once Upon returns to ABC on Sunday night. Check out EW.com’s review of the show’s second season poster here.