Sci-Fi Storm

ABC’s Once Upon A Time, the live action mashup of Disney fairy-tale characters cursed to live in the modern world in the small town of Storybrooke, Maine, will end after the current seventh season.

The show was revamped for the sixth season with a smaller cast and shifted from Sunday to lighter-viewed Friday night, but even at the TCAs they were cautiously optimistic about an eighth season, but the network decided not to renew.

For us, the show appeared to lose steam by the fourth season, as storylines appeared to get stretched to fill seasons, making it more binge-worthy than live viewing, but we did enjoy the take on the characters that would be mixed in from time to time. We’re still sad to see the show go.

In a bit of a shocker announcement today, actress Jennifer Morrison has elected not to return to Once Upon A Time for a seventh season, should ABC renew the show.

Morrison’s character of Emma Swan has been central to the show for the entire run, and to lose a central character like that can be difficult for the writers to deal with. But the show was looking at a re-imagining of itself already, with word on the street that four specific characters are targeted – Swan, Hook (Colin O’Donoghue), Regina (Lana Parrilla), and Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle). With all the original cast contracts up at the end of Season 6 (O’Donoghue still has a year on his), other current cast members were likely to be relegated to guest stars or even less. Parrilla and Carlyle are said to be close to signing, and Andrew J. West (Dead Of Summer) is expected to join as a regular after making his debut on the two-part season finale.

Morrison did agree to a guest appearance in Season 7. She announced her departure on her Instagram account:

As I reached the end of my 6 year contract on ONCE UPON A TIME, I was faced with a significant decision. ABC, Eddy Kitsis, and Adam Horowitz very generously invited me to continue as a series regular. After very careful consideration, I have decided that creatively and personally, it is time for me to move on. Emma Swan is one my favorite characters that I have ever played. My 6 years on ONCE UPON A TIME has changed my life in the most beautiful ways. I am absolutely blown away by the passion and commitment of the Oncer fans. I am so honored to have been a central part of such a special show. I will be forever grateful to Adam, Eddy, and ABC for giving me the gift of playing Emma Swan. As I move on to other creative endeavors, I will continue to attend the fan conventions whenever my professional schedule allows. I always look forward meeting the fans. If ABC Network does in fact order a season 7, I have agreed to appear in one episode, and I will most certainly continue to watch ONCE UPON A TIME. The creativity of the show runners has always inspired me, and I cannot wait to see the ways that they continue to develop and reinvent the show. #Onceuponatime #EmmaSwan #UglyDucklings

A post shared by jenmorrisonlive (@jenmorrisonlive) on May 8, 2017 at 4:48am PDT

Deadline reports that Ernie Hudson will guest star in episode 15 of Once Upon A Time.

The former Ghostbuster will play Poseidon, who is know to be the father of Ariel (i.e. “The Little Mermaid”), with JoAnna Garcia Swisher (Reba) reprising her guest role, but apparently we will find out that he is also the father of Ursula, played by Merrin Dungey (Alias), who made a couple appearances so far this season including the mid-season finale.

The second half of the current season appears to be leaving their Frozen mini-sequel behind for a more up front battle with Disney villains, with Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold joining Ursula, Cruella DeVil (Victoria Smurfit) and Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten) in an attempt to find “The Author” and change their story.

ABC has announced some of it’s mid-season programming slots, including when Marvel’s Agent Carter will fill in for the mid-season break of sibling show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Starting Tuesday, January 6th, the Hayley Atwell-led Carter will take over the 9pm timeslot from S.H.I.E.L.D., which will return from hiatus on March 3rd. Similarly, the dramedy musical Galavant from Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love.) with music by composer Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid) and lyricist Glenn Slater (Tangled), will fill in for <>i>Once Upon A Time starting January 4th at 8pm, with Once returning March 1st.

It’s really no surprise that Disney is going to fold in it’s hugely popular Frozen into the crossover fantasy would of the ABC series Once Upon A Time, especially given the tease at the very end of the season finale. It’s now official, as they’ve cast their Elsa, Anna and Kristoff. Australian actress Georgina Haig, who previously appeared on Fringe, will play Elsa. Her younger sister Anna will be played by newcomer Elizabeth Lail, while Anna’s love interest Kristoff will be Scott Michael Foster (Greek, Halt and Catch Fire).

It is uncertain how many episodes the characters or the storyline will appear in, but given the seemingly insatiable appetite of Frozen fans, I’m going to predict “as long as it keeps merchandise sales going…”

We didn’t know a lot about the upcoming Netflix series Sense8, from Andy and Lana Wachowski with J. Michael Straczynski, but now we know who will be in it, and a bit more on what it is about.

According to Deadline, the international cast includes U.S. actors Daryl Hannah (Splash, Kill Bill Vols. I and II), Brian J. Smith (Stargate Universe) and Terrence Mann (The Dresden Files); British actors Naveen Andrews (Lost, Sinbad, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland), Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who, Torchwood), Tuppence Middleton (Sinbad, Trance), and Aml Ameen (Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Harry’s Law); Mexican actors Alfonso Herrera and Erendira Ibarra; Indian actress Tena Desae (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel); South Korean actress Doona Bae (Cloud Atlas); and German actor Max Riemelt (The Wave), along with Jamie Clayton and Miguel Silvestri.

“The series follows eight characters around the world who, in the aftermath of a tragic death, find themselves linked to each other mentally and emotionally,” co-showrunner J. Michael Straczynski told Deadline. “They can not only see and talk to each other as though they were in the same place, they have access to each other’s deepest secrets. Not only must they figure out what happened and why and what it means for the future of humanity, they must do so netflix-logowhile being hunted by an organization out to capture, kill or vivisect them.”

It’s something like “Hell Week” in Hollywood, as the networks clean up their schedules to make room for new programs, while they also decide what new programs to take. NBC has decided not to renew Revolution after two seasons. The show seemed to shed viewers this season, somewhat attributed to the “midwinter break” that has been becoming more common but can disrupt serials like Revolution.

J.J. Abrams, who was an executive producer, was hit with a double whammy when another Bad Robot show, mid-season supernatural drama Believe, was also chopped. On the plus side of the equation, the peacock network picked up supernatural detective drama Constantine from Warner Bros. Based on the DC comic of the same name, it follows former con man John Constantine (Matt Ryan, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior), who becomes a detective fighting against dark forces.

On the ABC side, the network decided to keep strong fairy tale drama Once Upon A Time (and wondering what next season’s theme might be…) and the freshman show Resurrection, while saying goodbye to The Neighbors, it’s cult-following “aliens next door” comedy.

Perhaps without much surprise, Once Upon A Time In Wonderland will not be renewed by ABC, with the series finale to air next Thursday. The spin-off from the far more successful Once Upon A Time failed to gather an audience, in part likely due to ABC’s scheduling strategy to run it along side it’s sibling when it was originally envisioned as a one-off winter break program. Personally I found it to be too reliant on obvious virtual sets (again possibly due to production pressures), and the characters just didn’t get interesting. Apparently others agreed, as it debuted with a measly 1.7 rating and went down from there.

Here are two of the three trailers for Once upon A Time, released at Comic-Con over the weekend (the third was just a shorter edit):

Full Season 3 Trailer:

“Hook” Trailer:

[Unfortunately this video was pulled shortly after it was released]

Naveen Andrews, who played Sayid on ABC’s Lost, was a surprise panelist at Comic-Con for ABC’s upcoming Once Upon A Time In Wonderland (a spinoff of the hit ABC show), where it was announced that he is joining the show as the evil wizard Jafar. Andrews most recently appeared in the Sky1 series Sinbad, now currently playing on Syfy in the U.S.

Also on hand were cast members Sophie Lowe (Beautiful Kate, Alice), Michael Socha (Being Human, Knave of Hearts), Emma Rigby (Prisoners Wives, Red Queen) and Peter Gadiot (The Forbidden Girl , Cyrus) and co-creator and executive producer Edward Kitsis, who was a producer on Lost and is also an executive producer on Once Upon A Time.