ONCE UPON A TIME Season 2 Premiere Post-Mortem: Adam Horowitz Talks ‘Broken’

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the season 2 premiere of ONCE UPON A TIME. If you haven’t seen “Broken,” go watch it now and then come back to see what co-creator Adam Horowitz has to say about it and what comes next.]

There’s no denying scope of storytelling on ONCE UPON A TIME was fundamentally changed when the curse was broken at the end of the first season. But if you thought you knew where things were going, think again.

At the end of the second season premiere, “Broken,” not only was it revealed that there were people still living in the now-destroyed fairytale land…but Emma and Snow White/Mary Margaret were transported there with no obvious way to return to to Storybrooke.

So what happens next?

I spoke with ONCE UPON A TIME co-creator Adam Horowitz to see what he could spill about what the introduction of modern day fairytale land means for the show, the latest separation of Snow/Charming, all those guest actors, and more…

What led to the decision to bring Emma and Snow over to the fairytale land?
Adam Horowitz: What having them over in that world has done for us has allowed us to mix up the storytelling in a new way, which is continue to tell stories in Storybrooke and, now, a parallel story in present day fairytale land, which unlike the flashbacks, is a forward moving story where we don’t know where it will end. And at the same time, we will be able to go back and look at the past and juggle around in fun ways and shift the focus. Sometimes we’ll be more in the present fairytale, sometimes we’ll be more in the past. Sometimes we’ll be more in Storybrooke. It’s exciting for us, because the stakes are really exciting for all of us now.

Given how fast the curse was broken, should fans expect the pacing of storytelling to remain the same?
AH: Yes. I would say this — at its heart, this show for us is about these characters, it’s about these relationships and this twisted and crazy family, and these characters who are dealing with all these crises. But the overarching mythology of the show is a lot of stuff, and it’s about balancing it so it doesn’t overwhelm the character stuff, but it’s still engaging. So, for example, in season 1, we never wanted this show to be a “break the curse” show. We knew we wanted to break it at the end of the season and we knew we wanted to start the beginning of the next season by sending Emma and Mary Margaret to fairytale land. So in the spirit of that, we want to keep pushing forward while still finding ways to try and deepen the relationships of the characters we’ve spent all this time with so far.

Do you see yourselves telling stories in the present fairytale land if Emma and Mary Margaret aren’t there?
AH: That’s an excellent question. What I will say is, barring any catastrophe, that land will exist. And because of that, it’s open season on anything we want to do there. We love the idea that something has happened to the land and there are some people left, and what’s that going to mean, and what opportunities does that present us as storytellers. Yeah, we’re really excited about that.

There have been an extraordinarily large number of actors cast in roles for ONCE’s second season. Will all of those new characters be appearing in the fairytale land, or might some appear in Storybrooke?
AH: That’s another excellent question which we don’t want to spoil. But we’ve been incredibly fortunate to get some amazing, amazing actors to join us. We have some parts we’ve had a lot of fun writing.

Good! Now with the characters we already know and love, how are Snow and Charming going to deal with being separated again?
AH: Here’s what’s been very important to us this season — these characters have challenges to them, but we don’t do a repeat to what we did last year. So that the problems Snow and Charming face this season won’t be about a Katherine thing, where a woman is caught between them and the memories and all of that. This year, we want it to be about the separation, but also about other things to come, such as being parents to someone who is your contemporary. And being parents who took care of a child for about five minutes before they lost her. That child has spent 28 years wondering why she was abandoned and how they’re going to deal with that. So the conflict from the relationship now comes from an entirely different area than it did last season.

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What did you think of ONCE UPON A TIME’s second season premiere? And make sure to check back next week for more from our chat with Horowitz!

Related:

ONCE UPON A TIME Season 2 Cast Photos
ONCE UPON A TIME: Adam Horowitz and Lana Parrilla Tease the Season Premiere
ONCE UPON A TIME’s Jennifer Morrison Teases ‘The World is Upside Down For Emma’ In Season 2

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