Meghan Ory (Ruby/Red) No Longer A Regular

[MatthewPaul]

Even though it was stated before that Meghan would still be free to return to Once Upon A Time, this recent interview straight-up confirms that she will no longer be a regular this Season. She expresses that she may guest appear at least once a year. In short, the entire reason why she ended up doing “Intelligence” was because Ruby had been getting less screentime later in the Season and she wanted more work. I think this is a prime example why Season 2 had too many characters and storylines to juggle around with.

When magic came to Storybrooke at the conclusion of Once Upon a Time’s freshman season, there were high hopes for wolf-shifting Ruby (a.k.a. Little Red Riding Hood) and the troubled character’s portrayer, Meghan Ory. The Canadian actress was upgraded to series regular for Season 2 and Ruby’s back story was the focus of a November episode. Who knew that would turn out to be the character’s last significant onscreen appearance? Certainly not Ory, who ultimately got her happily ever after by bolting from Storybrooke to co-star opposite Josh Holloway and Marg Helgenberger in CBS’s new sci-fi fall drama, Intelligence.

TV Guide Magazine: Meghan, this sudden show change-a-roo comes as quite a shock to fans, but I suspected something was up when Ruby was missing completely from Once’s finale.
Meghan Ory: Yes, I think most people were a little taken aback by this little secret surprise.

TV Guide Magazine: How did it come about?
Ory: It was all very crazy and serendipitous. I was under contract for Once, but there have been so many new characters this year that the storyline [executive producers] Eddy [Kitsis] and Adam [Horowitz] wanted to do with Ruby ended up not being able to happen because they decided to take the show in a different way. They are so brilliant, so when they were inspired they had to follow their amazing idea for what they wanted to do with Neverland. I hadn’t been in a few episodes — my last was when everyone came back from New York — so I talked to the boys and asked them, ‘What’s going on? Is everything okay?’ And they said, ‘We love you, but we have this story that’s so huge we don’t know where we’re going to put you at this moment.’ So I said, ‘Maybe I should look elsewhere?’

TV Guide Magazine: At the start of the season, it seemed as though Ruby in wolf form was going to end up as either a pawn of the Queen or Mr. Gold.
Ory: I think that may have been an idea at one point, but the [Neverland] story took on a life of its own, and you can only tell so many stories. Originally, Josh [Dallas, who plays David] and I were going to be together longer in Storybrooke, but I think they decided to bring the girls back sooner from Fairytale Land.

TV Guide Magazine: So how did Intelligence come about?
Ory: My agents spoke with the [Once] producers, who said, ‘If she wants to go look for something, that’s fine.’ My team told me about this pilot that was shooting in Vancouver, but I was at my grandmother’s funeral so I couldn’t go test for it. I couldn’t leave my family, so I said no. They ended up testing me at the cast table read with Josh [Holloway] and everyone. Afterwards, I waited outside and they said, ‘So you want to do the show?’ We started shooting three days later. I ended up calling Eddy and Adam to tell them how thankful I was for the huge opportunity they gave me, and they were thrilled for me. Eddy said, ‘You’ve gone from protecting Snow White to protecting Josh.’

TV Guide Magazine: And ABC was cool with you going over to CBS?
Ory: Intelligence is on CBS but it’s from ABC Studios, so they were happy to have me under another banner at ABC. And I still may possibly be doing more episodes of Once Upon A Time.

TV Guide Magazine: Describe your new Intelligence character.
Ory: Her name is Riley Neal. She’s super smart and was a Secret Service Agent, the youngest to ever be on the President’s detail. Marg Helgenberger’s character recruits her to come work with her unit and protect Josh’s character, who is the most expensive weapon ever made [an agent implanted with a microchip]. Josh’s character and I like each other, but butt heads. His character is married, but there could be some sexual tension. And sort of like it was on Once, there are no damsels in distress. The damsels rescue themselves! It’s going to be very fun to go back and forth between these two different shows.

TV Guide Magazine: So we may have not seen the last of Ruby?
Ory: I’m a series regular on Intelligence, so we’ll see what happens. And who knows what’s happening with Once? I think everything is changing over there.

TV Guide Magazine: Indeed. It seems as though we won’t be seeing much of the supporting players who were left behind in Storybrooke while all the leads headed off to Neverland. Keegan Connor Tracy, who plays the Blue Fairy/Mother Superior, has wisely crossed over to Bates Motel, where she’s playing Norman’s teacher. Who have you spoken with in the cast?
Ory: Everyone has been super supportive. I talked to Beverley Elliott [Granny], who was very upset and worried when she learned that I wasn’t going to be in the finale. She emailed me to ask if I was okay.

TV Guide Magazine: Was it strange for you to watch the finale and see Ruby already absent?
Ory: It was. I love Ruby and was wondering if they might CGI a wolf in the background. In my mind she has her own life happening somewhere.

TV Guide Magazine: And is hopefully living happily ever after.
Ory: I’m definitely going to miss being there every day, but it’s for a good reason. I think Once is going to go for many seasons and I would love to guest star maybe once a year just to see what Ruby’s up to.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Kecks-Exclusives-Meghan-Ory-Once-Upon-A-Time-Intelligence-1065627.aspx

[RumplesGirl]

I love her and I loved Red but I honestly don’t know what more they could have done with her story. She got the big reveal of being the wolf, but Child of the Moon was very flat for me and it was clear that they can’t tell much more about Ruby. But I look forward to Intelligence!

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[MatthewPaul]

@RumplesGirl wrote:

I love her and I loved Red but I honestly don’t know what more they could have done with her story. She got the big reveal of being the wolf, but Child of the Moon was very flat for me and it was clear that they can’t tell much more about Ruby. But I look forward to Intelligence!

Had they not gone through with trying to make her a regular, I think episode 207 would have been much better off continuing from where “Lady of The Lake” left off. You still could have had George take a major presence in the Storybrooke side of the episode, but the flashback could have been Snow and Charming fighting against him and taking back the kingdom. That would have been much more satisfying and would have been better suited for the plot. Meanwhile, George in Storybrooke would have tried getting his revenge in a much more interesting way than framing Ruby for a murder.

[Keb]

She’s going to be missed, though. Also, she is part of the Charming family in my mind–she’s Snow’s adopted sister and therefore Henry’s aunt. So I’m saddened by this, but glad that Meghan’s got other awesome stuff going on for her. She deserves it.

I suppose the flaw with a show that attracts such amazing talent is that amazing talent is high in demand and hard to hang onto if you can’t offer much screen time.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[RumplesGirl]

@MatthewPaul wrote:

@RumplesGirl wrote:

I love her and I loved Red but I honestly don’t know what more they could have done with her story. She got the big reveal of being the wolf, but Child of the Moon was very flat for me and it was clear that they can’t tell much more about Ruby. But I look forward to Intelligence!

Had they not gone through with trying to make her a regular, I think episode 207 would have been much better off continuing from where “Lady of The Lake” left off. You still could have had George take a major presence in the Storybrooke side of the episode, but the flashback could have been Snow and Charming fighting against him and taking back the kingdom. That would have been much more satisfying and would have been better suited for the plot. Meanwhile, George in Storybrooke would have tried getting his revenge in a much more interesting way than framing Ruby for a murder.

Yes the idea of taking back the kingdom really fell through. We got two sort of episodes about it (Lady of the Lake, The Cricket Game) whereas at the end of last season I thought that would be the major FTL of the past storyline.

I suppose the flaw with a show that attracts such amazing talent is that amazing talent is high in demand and hard to hang onto if you can’t offer much screen time.

I.E.: Sebastian Stan. I just hope he comes back soon. I miss Jefferson.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[MysteryKat25]

@MatthewPaul wrote:

@RumplesGirl wrote:

I love her and I loved Red but I honestly don’t know what more they could have done with her story. She got the big reveal of being the wolf, but Child of the Moon was very flat for me and it was clear that they can’t tell much more about Ruby. But I look forward to Intelligence!

Had they not gone through with trying to make her a regular, I think episode 207 would have been much better off continuing from where “Lady of The Lake” left off. You still could have had George take a major presence in the Storybrooke side of the episode, but the flashback could have been Snow and Charming fighting against him and taking back the kingdom. That would have been much more satisfying and would have been better suited for the plot. Meanwhile, George in Storybrooke would have tried getting his revenge in a much more interesting way than framing Ruby for a murder.

I’ll agree with all of this. I love Red / Ruby but once her storyline was over with helping to convince Charming to really take control there wasn’t tons for her to do (though I would have enjoyed seeing her a bit more and I wanted a scene in the finale where Snow is at least shown talking to her and later we can learn that Snow is crushed but she had to ask Ruby to stay behind to protect people etc etc.

I feel like it was one of the teases in adding her to the regular cast and then not using her, but at the same time it was smart on their part to realize what wasn’t working and shake it up (sometimes you’re too far into a storyline and have to just see it out, sometimes you can nip things in the bud (ie: Nikki/Paulo on Lost). I think they realized that the present day FTL stuff was dragging a little and once the girls were back they were a big focus and Meghan is right when you find a huge idea you run with it, so Neverland became an obstacle for her as well.

It’s sad for Ruby and Red but I am so excited that maybe it helped launch Meghan into this new show! I love Josh Holloway (Sawyer from Lost) and it sounds like it has a lot of potential so I look forward to seeing it and her getting more screentime. I think Once is brilliant at finding actors that end up going on to other shows for more screentime (understandable) but absolutely deserve it. I’m happy to hear that she may pop in from time to time and I definitely think she should but character-wise it makes the most sense.

Yes there was a lot of MAP stuff this year as well as Anton and GOAT but all of them were important. I try not to include Hook in that list just because he was always supposed to be there from S1 (grr) but that is a lot of new characters that had to be dealt with as well, though most had some importance (some more than we ever wanted…*sigh* GOAT *screams and kicks*).

Looking forward to S3 (much more hopeful about where it’s going right now than say when S, B, & T was airing…) and also looking forward to catching her new show!

Now if CBS / CW would just announce their schedules so I can see what conflicts with what. :S

I too thought we’d be getting a lot more of taking back the kingdom. Maybe they decided to wait on that to parallel something else at a later date and we’ll still get it eventually. I can see that being a mini-arc (like maybe 2nd half of season 3 if the NL stuff gets wrapped up?) when they can get King George there for a few episodes cause he mostly bounces from show to show and we never really see him in more than an ep here or there for Once. Goodness knows what King George will be up to in SB when the CharmingStiltskins get home so maybe that’s where that could go? I definitely want to see how they got the kingdom back…

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[Killian Jones]

Red was a great character and you know I loved her episodes but I don’t know of much else they could have done with her. At the end of it all she became more of a plot device for “whose taking care of Henry.” Other than that they just wasn’t anywhere to fit her, I would have loved to see her interact with Lacey since her and Belle were becoming besties or how bout a little more interaction with Emma. I don’t know I was kind of sad to see the role Ruby ended up in and with her role being diminished when there would have presumably been more for her to do with her and Belle being the de-facto leaders in Storybrooke now but hey it is what it is.

[obisgirl]

This is sad news. I was excited when she was promoted to regular at the beginning of this season, but yeah, I understand why she chose to look for work elsewhere. She had one major backstory episode and the rest of the time, served as a babysitter for Henry.

[MysteryKat25]

@obisgirl wrote:

This is sad news. I was excited when she was promoted to regular at the beginning of this season, but yeah, I understand why I chose to look for work elsewhere. She had one major backstory episode and the rest of the time, served as a babysitter for Henry.

Pretty much. I enjoyed her much more toward the end of last season so was excited to see where they went with her but Child of the Moon wasn’t nearly as exciting as Red-Handed was. (I do still wonder about that lair they were in though, something about it being from a castle that sunk or something?? I need to rewatch later obviously cause I’ve kinda blocked most of that episode out I think. *poor Gus Gus, I was rooting for Ruby & Billy!*

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[RumplesGirl]

Re: scheduling

At least we know Intelligence won’t be going head to head with ONCE as it makes no sense to put a show like that on at 8 on Sundays. I just hope it doesn’t go up against a heavy hitter. I can see it maybe being on Thursday? Following TBBT if they want a nice lead in. I’m excited for it though. Josh Holloway has been off my TV for far too long

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Author]

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