Last we heard of Once Upon a Time‘s rumored Mad Hatter spinoff, things weren’t looking good: Actor Sebastian Stan is too busy being Bucky Barnes in the Marvelverse to reprise his role, and Once showrunner Eddy Kitsis said they weren’t going to recast him. Oh well. A Wonderland-set Once spinoff could’ve been neat, but—
Wait. They’re still doing one? Just with a different main character?
Oh there you are, Alice! Where’ve you been?
That there will be a spinoff is looking pretty concrete at this point; Kitsis and co-showrunner Adam Horowitz have reportedly brought in Zack Estrin (Charmed, Prison Break) to write and Jane Espenson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica) as a consulting producer, a role she already holds on Once.
But what about Alice? This has yet to be confirmed, but Deadline‘s Nellie Andreeva tells us:
Details about the spinoff are being kept under wraps but I have learned that it takes place in Wonderland. While the original idea was to use Once‘s character of Mad Hatter to transition to the new world, that plan was ultimately dropped. I hear the story will now be told through the point of of view of Alice, who has not appeared on Once, surrounded by several new characters… The spinoff takes place in a post-curse world, though, like on Once, there will be flashbacks, so we could potentially see familiar faces.
Those new characters, according to a casting breakdown Andreeva got her hands on, would include Amahl (“exotic, soulful and optimistic”) and The Knave (“a sardonic adventurer, a man of action, a loner and a heart-breaker”). One of those familiar faces could easily be Regina’s mother Cora, who just so happens to be the Queen of Hearts in the Once universe.
According to Deadline, Kitsis, Horowitz, Estrin, and Espenson will start working on the show in earnest in early April, right after shooting wraps on Once. Again, this is firmly within the city limits of Rumorville, but the spinoff, if it gets picked up to series, might have “13-episode season arcs with a beginning, middle and end, similar to FX’s American Horror Story, possibly bridging the fall and spring portions of Once.”
Interesting. There’s already another Alice-themed show in the works, this one featuring the eponymous hero as a Los Angeles cop. But that one was pushed back by its network, while this one looks to be charging along.
Might you watch?
(via: Deadline)
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