This afternoon I had the chance to attend the
Once Upon a Time PaleyFest panel and it was fantastic. The panel started out with a quick montage of the television series' that will be featured at PaleyFest this year and most of them got applause and 'whoots' from the crowd except for
Two and a Half Men haha. Then we were shown a clip from the "Paley Archives" that would be relevant to our upcoming panel - ours happened to be a scene from
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer in which Fairytale Monsters were attacking Sunnydale. You can see a quick clip of the scene that I found on YouTube
here. It's not very good quality, but you'll get the gist - very funny.
Next, our moderator, Matt Mitovich of
TVLine was introduced. Matt did a phenomenal job as moderator. He asked just the right questions. Matt then introduced show creators (also Writers and Producers of
LOST)
Edward Kitsis and
Adam Horowitz. The guys introduced our video viewing pleasure for the evening, which consisted of tonight's full episode, "Dreamy" and a ten minute clip for next week's episode called, "Red-Handed" (which looks good from those first ten minutes). In "Red-Handed" we are going to find our the identity of the Big Bad Wolf..."but not in these ten minutes" we were told. And we didn't.
The panel was then introduced:
Raphael Sbarge (Archie Hopper/Jiminy Cricket),
Robert Carlyle (Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin),
Lana Parrilla (Regina Mills/Evil Queen),
Steve Pearlman (Executive Producer), Horowitz, Kitsis,
Ginnifer Goodwin (Mary Margaret Blanchard/Snow White),
Josh Dallas (David Nolan/Prince Charming), and
Jennifer Morrison (Emma Swan).
To start off the panel, our moderator discussed some of the "numbers"
Once Upon a Time is bringing in. You can see a video of that below. Matt then talked about the
LOST references in the episodes so far, and there happened to be one in tonight's episode. *Hint: It has to do with the candles. Horowitz and Kitsis then went on mention that all the cast was actually their first choices, which never happens. They said they were thrilled that who they wrote the characters for is playing them. Segway-ing into that, Robert Carlyle was asked how he got into character, and he stated that he partly used his six year old son for inspiration, especially in the way he talks as Rumplestiltskin. He also said that it takes two hours to get his makeup on, and one hour to get it off. For Ginnifer, while reading the script, "I was on page ten, and I was like she's wielding a sword? I'll take it!"
Kitsis was very funny throughout the panel, joking about hints being dropped throughout episodes on how to break the curse. "Perhaps we already have...take that." Ginnifer adds that "what breaks the curse makes perfect sense." You can watch a quick clip of that below. Then of course I had to get a video of Josh when he was being interview about what's in store for David! And he winks in it! Money shot - watch below.
Slight spoilers in this panel included:
- Archie's next patients, namely David and Mr. Gold, and in Fairytale land, "Jiminy will be leading an intervention." As Josh stated, "David has a lot of problems."
- The panel also talked about the big scene between Regina and Mr. Gold not to long ago when they had a showdown about their names. There will be more frank talk between the two, and they will be speaking out in the open from now on.
- Before the finale we will find out who August is, what he is doing in Storybrooke, etc. I luckily caught this on video (view below) as Matt asks if they can rule out if he is Henry grown up, to which Kitsis reponds, "Who said that?...Can we re-shoot anything?" I personally never thought of that theory, but it is fantastic! Mine is that he is one of the
Grimm brothers or a descendant of. Just putting it out into the world. Kitsis and Horowitz's final response was, "Lot of theories out there, someone's got it right."
- What Snow White did to make the Evil Queen so mad is addressed this season, and according to Ginnifer is "coming soon-ish."
- The show will also be picking up again after Snow White drank the forgetting potion. (YAY!).
- As we already knew,
Barbara Hershey is coming on to play the Evil Queen's mother, and Lana said that there is a bit of a
Beaches vibe to it.
- Regarding The Little Mermaid reference from a few episodes ago: "We would love to tell the story of Ariel and The Little Mermaid, but that will be Season 2." To which Lana replied: "Can I turn into Ursela at some point?" I for one would love to the The Little Mermaid worked into this show. It is my favorite Disney Princess story.
- Jamie Dornan (aka Sheriff Graham/Huntsman) will likely be coming back as "he is still very much alive in Fairytale land." YAY!
- Maleficent will of course be back at some point.
Some favorite questions and answers of the panel include:
Matt: "Is Pinocchio coming to Storybrooke? Is he a mailbox or something?"
Matt: "How is Vancouver treating you weather-wise?" / Jennifer: "It's cold and wet."
Audience Member: "If you could play another character on the show, who would it be?" / Jennifer: "Prince Charming." / Josh: "Rumple" / Ginnifer: "Henry" / Raphael: "Evil Queen".
An audience member asked about there being a musical episode. / Ginnifer: "Josh can sing 'Rumor Has It'. / Josh: "Not right now."
An audience member thanked Josh for moving her 12 year old granddaughter on from that Justin Bieber. Haha. It was hilarious, and he was laughing so hard at that, I wish I got it on video.
See more photos I took at the panel here:
http://on.fb.me/wpBWLU
I was lucky enough to get Josh and Ginnifer's autographs in my program
And a great ending to the panel was a quote from Kitsis where he said, "If you don't have dreams, than what's the point. Go get them!"
Look who else wrote about the panel here:
TVLine: Scoop: Once Upon a Time Sends Prince Charming and Rumpelstiltskin to [Spoiler]
The Futon Critic: Live at the Paley Festival: ABC's "Once Upon a Time"
Zap2it: 'Once Upon a Time': Mr. Gold's therapy, Evil Queen's mommy issues and Ariel in Season 2?
Paley Center: Photos from the panel
Can't wait until Saturday when I attend
The Vampire Diaries panel! Look for my recap of that as well ;)
