Getty ImagesOnce Upon a Time just got a healthy increase in girl power!
E! News can confirm that the ABC fairy tale fantasy is adding five fresh faces into the mix for its upcoming slightly-rebooted seventh season. While exactly who they're playing is being kept under wraps for the time being, the newcomers include Burn Notice vet Gabrielle Anwar and Devious Maids alum Dania Ramirez (both in series regular roles), as well as Reign star Adelaide Kane, Chicago Med vet Mekia Cox and English actress Rose Reynolds in recurring roles.
TVLine first reported the news.
The casting comes after OUAT shed nearly all of its main cast as season six came to its conclusion. Mainstays Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, Emilie de Ravin, Jared Gilmore and Rebecca Mader were all dropped from the series, with Morrison promising she'll return for at least one episode in the upcoming season. Lana Parrilla, Robert Carlyle and Colin O'Donoghue, however, will stay put.
The season six finale introduced a grown-up Henry Mills (originally played by Gilmore, now played by Andrew J. West) and his daughter Lucy (Alison Fernandez), echoing the series' genesis, with Henry assuming his mother's role as the Savior who's forgotten all about magic and his child. The official logline for the new storyline reveals that "the residents of the Enchanted Forest face their greatest challenge yet" as Parrilla's Evil Queen, O'Donoghue's Captain Hook and Carlyle's Rumplestiltskin team up with Henry and Lucy "on an epic quest to once again bring hope to their world and ours. Along the way, fairy tale characters new and old search for true love, find adventure and once again take sides in the struggle of good against evil, as classic tales are once more twisted and reimagined."
Are you looking forward to OUAT's infusion of new blood? Any early guesses on who they might be playing? Sound off with your theories in the comments below!
Once Upon a Time moves to Fridays at 8 p.m. this fall on ABC. A premiere date has yet to be announced.