Once Upon a Time creators are making a new fairy tale show

I have a love-hate relationship with Once Upon a Time. I thought the first season was absolutely wonderful. The characters were intriguing, the cinematography was beautiful, and each episode was like a puzzle piece, revealing another aspect of the story. Not to mention that every single costume Eduardo Castro ever made for that show was simply stunning, evoking a fantastical splendor that felt surprisingly grounded.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t give a shoutout to actors Lana Parrilla (Regina Mills/The Evil Queen), Robert Carlyle (Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold), Colin O’Donoghue (Captain Hook/Killian Jones), and Jennifer Morrison (Emma Swan) for their impeccable performances throughout the series’ run. Even though I never mustered up the energy to finish all seven seasons, I still long for the mystery and grandeur of the early episodes.

Once Upon a Time sprung from the minds of Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, who recently worked on Apple’s sci-fi anthology Amazing Stories. As reported by SyFy Wire, it appears that Horowitz and Kitsis will be making another foray into the anthology genre with their upcoming series Epic. Billed as “a romantic anthology that reinvents fairy tales for a new audience,” AMC has greenlit a pilot. As of right now, there is no news about what fairy tales will be included in the show or when production begins.

The rise and fall of Once Upon a Time

Many classic fairy tales are problematic at their core. We all loved singing along with Ariel in The Little Mermaid, but let’s not forget that in the original Hans Christian Andersen tale, the potion the mermaid drinks to gain human legs makes her bleed and causes her intense pain. She doesn’t even end up with the prince at the end; her body dissolved into seafoam!

Once Upon a Time tried to subvert these stories by humanizing the larger-than-life characters and offering unique twists on age-old tropes. However, as the show went on, the plot went a little off the rails, and I’m saying that as someone who absolutely adored the series. (Don’t tell anyone, but I still update my Outlaw Queen fanfiction regularly).

Characters that fans had been invested in since season 1, like Ruby Lucas/Red Riding Hood (Meghan Ory) and Archie Hopper/Jiminy Cricket (Raphael Sbarge), vanished without a trace. The later seasons sometimes felt like an endlessly turning lazy susan of half-baked heroes and villains, ignoring the core characters in favor of cramming as many fairy tale cameos into each episode as possible. Once Upon a Time also featured numerous instances of poorly veiled sexual assault, which were almost always glazed over and blamed on a curse or a spell.

Fairytales do teach important lessons, and I was always fond of the much-repeated Once Upon a Time adage that “evil isn’t born, it’s made.” Needless to say, I’m hoping for more thoughtful and concise stories in Epic. Viewers will just have to wait and see what the series has in store.

All seven seasons of Once Upon a Time are available to stream with a subscription to Disney+.

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