Not too long ago we reported that a spin-off to ABC’s ‘Once Upon a Time’ was being developed by its creators Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz with the help of Zach Estrin and Jane Espenson. For the last two weeks, production for ‘Once Upon a Time: Wonderland’ has been focusing on casting and with the latest addition of Paul Reubens, the task now seems to be complete.
Reubens is best known for his loveable man-child character Pee Wee Herman which was featured in the children’s TV show ‘Pee Wee’s Playhouse’ and the films ‘Pee Wee’s Big Adventure’ and ‘Pee Wee’s Big Top’. While the role of Pee Wee is what audiences may know him best for, Reubens has done quite a bit of acting in the genre most recently voicing the character of Pavel in ‘Tron: Uprising’ and Bat-Mite in ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’.
It’s his voice that he’ll be using once again on the small screen in ‘Once Upon a Time: Wonderland’. Reubens has been tapped to be the voice of the White Rabbit which is based on the character from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass’. Unfortunately, the White Rabbit will be created via CGI so fans won’t be able to see Reubens act in the show at all.
Reubens will be joining Emma Rigby (‘Ripper Street’, ‘Hollyoaks’) who was recently cast as the Red Queen. In the book, the Red Queen was a short tempered, merciless Queen who is rather ruthless against those who are her enemies or who have betrayed her. As we’ve already seen from the parent series, not everyone in the ‘Once Upon a Time’ universe is as they seem to be in their fairy tale stories, so it will be interesting to see how this Red Queen will be portrayed.
Sophia Lowe as Alice in ‘Once Upon a Time: Wonderland’Also cast in the pilot was Peter Gadiot (‘The Forbidden Girl’, ‘Night Wolf’) as Alice’s love interest Cyrus and Michael Socha (‘Being Human’, ‘This is England’) as the Knave of Hearts. Playing the lead role of Alice is Sophie Lowe.‘Once Upon a Time: Wonderland’ is said to take place before the curse was in effect in the land of Wonderland and the story is said to be told “through the point of view of view of Alice who has a generous heart but carries the scars of a long hard life.” With the curse not yet happening, it opens the door for many cross overs between the sister shows and we may even get to see Barbara Hershey play the Queen of Hearts once again like she did in the episode ‘Queen of Hearts’ on ‘Once Upon a Time’.
Filming commences on April 7 in Vancouver with a 4 scene abbreviated pilot that will serve to sell the show to the network executives. If they like what they see, ‘Once Upon a Time: Wonderland’ may be on the Fall 2013 new show list.
The addition of Reubens as the White Rabbit seems like a perfect match, don’t you think? However, I still can’t get it out of my head of the character going up to Alice and saying “I know what you are but what am I?” in that high pitched nasal Pee Wee voice.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the progress of ‘Once Upon a Time: Wonderland’ so make sure you check back for updates.
Meanwhile, what do you think of ‘Once Upon a Time: Wonderland’ so far?
