‘Once Upon a Time’ Revival Series Heads for Disney+? - Inside the Magic
Nathan Kamal
Disney+ could use some sure-fire hits these days and the rumors of a 'Once Upon a Time' revival are brewing.
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Inside the Magic
Once Upon a Time was one of the biggest TV shows of the 2010s and a much-needed hit for the Disney-owned ABC network, and one of its stars is suggesting that it might be time for a revival of the series.

The series was created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, who had already worked on Lost, another era-defining ABC series, and Tron: Legacy (2010), the stalled revival of the beloved cult sci-fi series. Unsurprisingly for a series produced by Disney, the show blended fairy tale characters like Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) with a modern-day world anchored by series lead Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), debuting as the highest-rated drama series on TV.

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Once Upon a Time lasted for seven seasons and eventually drew in Disney mainstays like Cinderella (Dania Ramirez), Mulan (Jamie Chung), and, of course, Captain Hook (Colin O’Donoghue). In keeping with the show’s revisionist attitude toward fairy tales, however, this version of the Peter Pan villain was a more morally ambiguous, occasionally heroic figure who eventually becomes the love interest of Emma Swan.

In a recent interview with Collider, Colin O’Donoghue teasingly hinted at the possibility of a Once Upon a Time revival, asserting that the central premise of the show was evergreen. The Hook actor mentioned that there had actually been at least some discussion of a revival, saying, “I think that the show could definitely go again. I mean, look, it’s a call for Eddie and Adam, really. I’ve spoken to them, and a few other people about it, and I think what’s great about Once is I think that you could kind of come back and just pick up where it left off, or whatever that is.”

While there is no official word from the Walt Disney Company (yet) that it is looking into bringing back Once Upon a Time, it really does not seem unlikely. Since the Disney+ streaming service was launched in 2019, it has experimented with reviving and rebooting IP as divergent as the cult fantasy movie Willow (1988), the human-dog buddy cop comedy Turner & Hooch (1989), and the hockey sports series The Mighty Ducks (1992).

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None of those series (and there are plenty more revivals on Disney+) had the cultural breakthrough as Once Upon a Time did in its prime, which should make a revival a no-brainer for the company. And, as Colin O’Donoghue went on to say, if the original actors don’t want to return, the conceit of the show can take care of that nicely.

The actor continued, “What was great about Once Upon a Time, and what was great about working on it was that in every episode, there was something new, fresh, and different. There was a different world, there were different characters, there were different sorts of aspects of Disney and fairy tales. Here’s the thing, fairy tales will never go out of fashion. They haven’t for hundreds of years, and I don’t see them going out of fashion anytime soon. ”

There are enough fairy tales and folk stories from around the world to easily fuel a dozen more series of Once Upon a Time on Disney+ if the top brass feel like it. Hopefully, they will soon.