Once Upon a Time Trivia: 26 interesting facts about the fantasy series!

Once Upon a Time is an American fairy tale dramatic television series that premiered on October 23, 2011, on ABC. The show takes place in the fictional seaside town of Storybrooke, Maine, whose residents are characters from various fairy tales transported to the “real world” town and robbed of their real memories by a powerful curse. Episodes typically feature a primary storyline in Storybrooke, as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character’s life before the curse was enacted.

Find out unknown facts about it, here!

1. The series borrows elements and characters from the Disney-franchise and popular Western literature, folklore, and fairy tales.

2. Once Upon a Time was created by Lost and Tron: Legacy writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.

3. A spin-off series, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, consisting of 13 episodes, premiered on October 10, 2013, and concluded on April 3, 2014.

4. On March 3, 2016, ABC renewed the series for a sixth season, which premiered on September 25, 2016.

5. The series takes place in the fictional seaside town of Storybrooke, Maine, in which the residents are actually characters from various fairy tales and other stories that were transported to the “real world” town and robbed of their original memories by the Evil Queen Regina (Lana Parrilla), using a powerful curse obtained from Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle).

6. The residents of Storybrooke, where Regina is mayor, have lived an unchanging existence for 28 years, unaware of their own lack of aging.

7. The town’s only hope lies with a bail-bonds person named Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), the daughter of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming(Josh Dallas), who was transported from the Enchanted Forest to our world via a magic wardrobe as an infant before she could be cursed.

8. As such, she is the only person who can break the curse and restore the characters’ lost memories. She is aided by her son, Henry (Jared S. Gilmore), with whom she has recently reunited after giving him up for adoption upon his birth, and his Once Upon a Time book of fairy tales that holds the key to breaking the curse.

9. Henry is also the adopted son of Regina, providing a source of both conflict and common interest between the two women.

10. Episodes usually have one segment that details the characters’ past lives that, when serialized, adds a piece to the puzzle about the characters and their connection to the events that preceded the curse and its consequences.

11. The other, set in the present day, follows a similar pattern with a different outcome but also offers similar insights.

12. Ginnifer Goodwin has always identified with Snow White. Long before she took the role in Once Upon a Time, Goodwin was a big Snow fan. “Honestly, I was always obsessed with Snow White,” she recalled.

13. Her TV husband Josh Dallas was never much for fairy tales.  “I wasn’t really into fairy tales when I was growing up,” he admitted. “I was always outside. I was always playing Army or doing something like that, or building some kind of fort. So I didn’t ever really read fairy tales.”

14. Colin O’ Donoghue is a lifelong “Peter Pan” fan. Like Goodwin, he knows his character well. “[Disney’s Peter Pan] was one of the first films I saw,” he said. “I read the book and knew the character.” Because of that, O’Donoghue has made a conscious effort to distance himself from the Disney villain.

15. The actors originally thought they were always going to be playing two characters.

16. Charming was originally meant to die in the pilot.

17. Lady Gaga was offered the role of the Blue Fairy. However, they never heard back from her management team.

18. Rumplestiltskin/Gold remembered who he was only after Emma told him her name.

19. Hook was originally meant to come in during season one.

20. Jennifer Morrison is actually three years older than Josh Dallas who plays her father on the show.

21. Pan being evil wasn’t just for the show. In J.M. Barrie’s original draft for the play, Peter Pan was actually a villain, who would kill the Lost Boys when they got too old.

22. Hook is based off a mix of Westley from The Princess Bride and Han Solo from Star Wars.

23. Many of the Names Have Special Meanings”Names for many characters in Storybrooke are often coordinated with their fairytale counterpart. For example, Mary Margaret Blanchard (Snow White): Blanchard derives from the French word ‘blanc’ or ‘blanche’ for white.

24. The name “Mary Margaret” is from a real-life woman believed to be the inspiration of the Snow White character named ‘Maria Sophia Margaretha Catharina Freifräulein Von Erthal.

25. The role of Maleficent was to be given to another actress. Paula Marshall was cast as Maleficent but was replaced by Kristin Bauer van Straten after producers decided to go in a different direction with the character.

26. There Are Some Historical Inaccuracies”They talk about the guillotine several times, however the fairy tales are set in 1200-1500’s, the guillotine was not used until the French Revolution, 1792.”