‘Once Upon A Time’: 5 Hints At What’s Ahead

After a lengthy hiatus, “Once Upon A Time” finally returns to ABC on Sunday night.

As Season 3 continues, expect emotions to run high for the Storybrooke residents who were returned to fairy tale land following the midseason finale. Knowing Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) and Henry (Jared Gilmore) are out there – and with no memories of them — will be tough for some folks to take.

And, in this half of the season, the show is introducing new characters from Oz, including Zelena The Wicked Witch (Rebecca Mader) and Glinda (Sunny Mabrey).

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Executive Producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis recently sat down with TV writers and hinted at what’s ahead in the coming weeks on “Once,” which returns Sunday at 8/7c on ABC.

Regina & Robin Hood’s Paths Will Finally Cross: In the first half of Season 3, fans learned that Regina has a true love, but she stopped just short of going into the tavern to meet him. As the series resumes, expect Regina and Robin Hood’s paths to finally cross. “They’re going to see them meet very shortly. In fact, I would say in the next episode,” Adam said. “Whether true love happens or works out or not, it’s going to be hopefully a very interesting road that they both travel together.”

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“She will see that tattoo,” Edward added of the defining mark that Tinkerbell told Regina her true love would carry. “And it will definitely have an effect on her.”

New Origin Stories Are Coming: As “Once” fans know, characters from “The Wizard of Oz” are set to be featured in the drama, and we will get a look into their past. “We are going to get Zelena’s – the Wicked Witch’s — origin story,” Edward said. “And we are going to get a Cora – a Rose McGowan — backstory at some point,” he added, referring to the younger version of Regina’s mom.

Expect A Twist On Glinda: “We will meet her in this half of the season… I would say in the latter half of this run of episodes,” Adam said of the character played by Sunny.

While she will be “positive,” and have, “a lot of spirit to her,” according to Edward, she’s not the woman who arrived in the bubble in the famed Judy Garland film. “Our Glinda is pure goodness and all this, but she’s a character that I think you’ll see has gone through a lot more,” Adam said.

Glinda & The Wicked Witch Aren’t The Only Oz Characters Coming To “Once”: “We will definitely see some iconic friends from Oz,” Edward said.

“A lot of the big touchstones from [L. Frank] Baum’s books are sort of hit and we try to do our own spin on them,” Adam added. “For us, there’s some fun surprises and hopefully interesting takes on that world… in our ‘Once Upon A Time’ way.”

Regina Finds A Friend?: When AccessHollywood.com spoke to Lana earlier this week, she revealed that her character is heartbroken without Henry, but she will find someone to confide in. “I think what we’ll see is there is someone in her past that she has always had a very difficult relationship with, but so much time has passed and they have had to work together and she has moments where she confides in this person,” Lana said. “It isn’t a new character. It’s someone that we know and you’ll see it in the first episode, this Sunday. There’s a small conversation between them where she basically is just talking about how much she misses her son and how difficult it is for her.”

— Jolie Lash