Official 306 Title Confirmed

I think the at least means she’ll start out with two episodes but become more central in the latter half of the season

Yes, “at least” just means that’s all they’re able to confirm right now. Same thing with Robin getting, “at least a 4 episode arc”. It’s just the starting point. I think they may have said something similar for Hook when he started out too, and he’s now in the main cast.

They’ve done setup for mermaids as far back as season 1, and especially at the end of season 2. Ariel’s story will also involve Ursula, and Triton, and her love story, and all of that cannot be told fully if she’s only appearing in 2 eps.

Rumour is they’ve had JoAnna in mind for this role since the show began, (JMo mentions it in an interview from 2011), but then she got other jobs, and got pregnant. She had the baby in May, and now they’ve finally signed her up, after wanting her on the show for 2 years. If they waited until the time was perfect, for the story, and for a particular actress, safe to say she’s getting more than 2 eps. If it was gonna be such a small role, they’d have slotted her in with any random actress before now.

I hope Ursula is a character by herself and not Regina or Rumpelstiltskin. I love those two to death but Ursula is just waaaay too good to not have her tentacles up on screen…..

Plus she’d have a nice backstory. In a deleted scene of the Disney version, it was revealed Ursula was King Triton’s sister and once Queen of The Sea but Triton banished her for using black magic and she vowed for revenge. I’m sure OUAT could use that!

I just love The Little Mermaid !!!!!

There’s another thread around here somewhere (might be in General Discussion and Theories?) that discusses the potential for their version of The Little Mermaid.

I’m almost positive that Regina will essentially play the role of Ursula. The scene where she mentions a mermaid to Rumple, it’s the ep where she has that different coloured streak in her hair, just like Ursula does, and I think it’s a hint. I’m really interested to see what they do with Triton, especially considering Rumple has a trident amongst his treasures on display in his castle. The only scene we see it in, is the scene when Regina’s there, which is another little thing that I think points to her being Ursula. I suspect the squid may be its own entity.

I can attest to Ariel being popular- I think at the D23 Expo, I saw more of her than any other princess as far as cosplay and people wearing her on t-shirts!

Rumour is they’ve had JoAnna in mind for this role since the show began, (JMo mentions it in an interview from 2011)

At first, I misread that post thinking that you said Johanna instead Joanna. I was thinking about the Once Upon a Time Johanna and I was confused with the post at first.
It is pretty hard to imagine Ariel being only in two episodes since

a. Ariel was a highly requested character for Once Upon a Time

b. If Ariel was going to be in two episodes, I don’t think they will show a teaser trailer of her in ComicCon

c. Like Phee said, since Adam and Eddie wanted Joanna to play Ariel since basically the start of the show. If Ariel was only in two episodes, they would of hired a random actress to play her.

At first, I misread that post thinking that you said Johanna instead Joanna. I was thinking about the Once Upon a Time Johanna and I was confused with the post at first.

😆 Guess it does almost look like an H. JoAnna spells it with the capital A on her Twitter profile, so I figured that’s technically how it’s spelled.

I think the structure of two mini-seasons is deliberate as the writers want to get a look at how ratings are doing before mapping out the back half of the season.

Contracts can always be re-negotiated or may already contain options to bring her back for more stories and such.

Yes, I’ve been thinking that too, in relation to Robin. They have a definite plan for his first 4 eps, and depending on how that goes, they’ll then officially lock in the future of the character for the back 11.