Here’s the link to Barbara Barnett’s podcast. The interview starts about 30mins in: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/barbara-barnett/2013/11/19/once-upon-a-time-with-guest-co-executive-producer-david-goodman
I thought for sure they knew about MalcolmPan before the end of S2 because ABC didn’t include the cut Manhattan scene of Rumple’s father leaving him from the DVDs, which are canon according to Adam.
So they set up big general ideas and plots and then seasonal arcs are mapped out a few months before they write/film. I guess I’m not *surprised* but I thought MalcolmPan would have been planned since Manhattan.
I think that by the time the DVDs were put together, they must have had an inkling that they were maybe gonna go in a different direction with that story, so they specifically asked that that cut scene not be included. David said he couldn’t remember who exactly at the writers’ camp had voiced the possibility, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it had been Adam or Eddy, because it’s such a major twist, it’s probably an idea they started to consider already by the end of S2. Maybe they even did have an original plan to make Pan his brother, but thought that father would make for a cooler twist once they started to hash it all out? The brother theory still could have worked, even with the cut scene of Rumple seeing his father run out and be killed.
One of the panellists (who I love) once more presented her “the blue fairy has an agenda” theory and asked about it, pointing out how many strings she’s pulled. David won’t confirm or deny, but he encouraged the panellist to “spin away”.
I enjoyed that he seemed amused by the Sneaky Fairy question. 😉
In the next couple of episodes the story of Henry and Neverland will come to a dramatic conclusion. Though he doesn’t want to say they’ll NEVER be returning to NVL because who knows for sure?
I liked hearing this question addressed, because lately I’ve been thinking that there’s no way that they can really show all the NL history that’s relevant to these characters, within the next couple of eps. They won’t have time to show exactly what Hook did when he worked for Pan. Won’t have time to show Tink’s time there, including how she got there in the first place. Won’t have time to show Bae’s time there, his first meeting with Pan, how he ended up in the cave, and how he ended up leaving. So I figured maybe they’ll keep all that in reserve to use in future eps that focus on Nealfire, Hook, and Tink. It’d also allow them to bring back Robbie Kay for flashback guest appearances in the future, even if Pan dies in the present.