The original Henry Mills, Jared Gilmore is returning to ‘Once Upon A Time’. He will reprise his role in a flashback episode that focuses on his character and Lana Parrilla’s Regina. “We think it’s a really sweet, emotional mother-son story, ” executive producer Adam Horowitz said.
The episode will also be set in the series’ original locale, Storybrooke. Fellow EP Edward Kitsis said “I would be depressed if I had to go the whole year without seeing Storybrooke again. So yes, we are going to see Storybrooke again.”
As for Gilmore’s return, Horowitz stated:
“We’re very excited to have Jared back. He’s in a lot of ways the heart and soul of the show. He grew up literally on the show and it’s really wonderful to see him back. I hope the audience enjoys. We feel like we have a fun adventure.”
Katsis added:
“He is getting into college and he’s grown up and it’s a crazy thing. We’re really excited to have him back. I think in the opening of the year when we saw him get on that motorcycle, it was a like a different Jared. We’re going to show an episode with him before that in Storybrooke with Regina. It’s a college tour. Who doesn’t want to go on a college tour with the Evil Queen? She plays beer pong like nobody.”
Gilmore and the majority of the original cast including Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas, exited the series, which was pretty heavily rebooted, moving from Storybrooke to the more urban setting of Hyperion Heights. Andrew J. West took the role of an older Henry.
And he might not be the only alum to return as the series winds up its seventh and final season.
Katsis said, “Once is home to everyone, so there’s an open invitation to every actor who has been on the show to come back in the finale. We’ll see who’s available. But throughout the year, we’re going to see some familiar faces as well.”
“There’s an open invitation for every actor who’s been on the show to come back in the finale and so we’ll see who’s available. If the real question is will the final couple hours remind us of the first six years, then the answer is yes, but does that mean everyone’s coming back? No, because they’re real people with real lives and we can’t force them to anymore. We try!”
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly
