THR 3/3 – Creators Reveal Secrets

[MatthewPaul]

When Once Upon a Time launched in October 2011, few were predicting a fairy tale ending. “The show premiered against the World Series and football on a Sunday at 8 p.m., which everyone had titled ‘the death slot,’ ” says the ABC fantasy series’ co-creator Edward Kitsis. “We were predicted to be the first show canceled, so we, of course, believed it.”

Four and a half years later, the drama starring Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, Lana Parrilla and Josh Dallas is heading toward its 100th episode March 6. Though it’s no longer pulling 12 million viewers, nearly 8 million still tune in weekly, and the ABC Studios production has been licensed in 200 countries. And to the delight of executives at both ABC and parent company Disney, the syn­ergistic series has continued to reinvent itself by repeatedly “borrowing the toys,” as Kitsis and his longtime writing partner Adam Horowitz put it, from Disney’s extensive library of princesses, villains and lovable sidekicks, ranging from Frozen’s Elsa to Pinocchio.

Once Upon a Time’s premise is considerably less bleak than that of Lost, where the partners who met at the University of Wisconsin-Madison made their names as writers (and eventually executive producers), but that, they insist, was by design. “We wanted to make Once about hope,” says Kitsis, 45, “because it was coming right after the financial crisis and everything just seemed so cynical.” He and Horowitz, 44, both married with children and jointly prepping a summer camp horror anthology series on ABC’s cable sibling Freeform, talked with THR about the characters still on their wish list, Simpsons inspirations and why Star Wars characters won’t be paying a visit to Storybrooke anytime soon.

Read more here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/once-a-time-100th-episode-871533

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