In its five seasons on the air, Once Upon a Time has visited Neverland, Oz, Wonderland, and Camelot, among other lands. If Jennifer Morrison had her way, instead of visiting another fantastical world, season six of would take a trip back in time to a very specific point in American history.
"I think my fantasy for the show will probably never happen. I'd love to do, I don't know, rock and roll in the '60s," the Savior, Emma Swan herself, told E! News with a laugh. "I don't think that's in the cards for us."
Of course, before the heroes and villains of Storybrooke can even think about where they might wind up next, they've got some work to do. Namely, get the hell out of, well, Hell.
The struggle to escape the Underworld continues in the May 1 episode, when Hades (Greg Germann) turns to the heroes for help to rescue his beloved Zelena (Rebecca Mader), who was kidnapped at the end of last week's episode by Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) and his father, Peter Pan (Robbie Kay). In return, he'll remove all their names from the tombstones that are currently keeping them trapped among the dead. "We knew it would be difficult to get home no matter what, but now that we have extra obstacles in the way, there's multiple things stopping us, now, from getting back," Morrison warned. "So it's not going to be a direct route, [but] a more complicated plan to actually get us all out of there."
Part of that more complicated plan? Traveling into the depths of the Underworld to secure the freedom of her own beloved, Captain Hook (Colin O'Donoghue), which could prove to be Emma's most dangerous quest yet. "I mean, I guess I can say the usual, which is that nothing is as easy as it sounds," she previewed of the journey. "Not that going to the most dangerous place in hell sounds easy, but I guess the adventure is always different than you expect, right?"
Should Emma succeed and return to Storybrooke with her man by her side for season six, Morrison's looking forward to exploring life as a couple who knows what they want. "I think it's interesting now that we're looking at the relationship as a real relationship and the ups and downs that's in a real relationship, and the intimacy that you discover when you know that you've decided that that's the person you want to be with. I think that's definitely stuff that we're looking to start exploring between Hook and Emma."
Beyond exploring Emma and Hook as a couple, season six will also guarantee a change of scenery as our heroes find their way out of the Underworld and into the unknown. Creators Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz previously teased to E! News that the season five finale will "see the arrival of someone new and the return of someone old as our heroes' faith in each other and in magic itself is put to the ultimate test." Who's the familiar face returning? Morrison's not telling, but she does admit it's someone we'd never have expected.
"Honestly, I didn't see any of it coming in the script, not that I ever do. They're so good at having so many creative surprises," she teased. "I definitely was surprised by it, but I was also excited about it because I feel like it's characters that are definitely going to bring a lot to the show, but are [also] characters that are very unexpected."
As season five begins to wind down and she gets some time off, Morrison's begun work with More to Migraine, a campaign from Teva Pharmaceuticals meant to raise awareness of migraine and inspire fellow sufferers to have meaningful and informed discussions with their doctors. A migraine sufferer herself, Morrison finds More to Migraine especially important.
"I really jumped at the opportunity to work with More to Migraine because I've been dealing with migraines. They started while I was working on Once Upon a Time. For me, my initial triggers are bright lights, which trigger blurred vision and then that turns into a kind of nausea, which then turns into the more painful migraine," she shared. "When it first started happening, I didn't realize that what it was was a migraine. I just didn't. My vision would get blurred and then all these other things would happen. More to Migraine has a website called MoretoMigraine.com where people can go and get information about the questions they can ask their doctor, different symptoms that they can be aware of, and different triggers that are kind of difficult triggers."
"If I had known about something like that when I started having my migraines, it would've been really helpful to know what was going on because, in addition to dealing with the migraine, I was also dealing with the fear of not knowing what it was," she added. "It seems to be a really important resource for people. Also, it's good for people to be educated about it before they start talking to their doctors about it. It gives them a chance to really articulate themselves properly and make sure they really explain all their symptoms, so they can get proper help."
So, as one of more than 36 million Americans suffering from migraines, what does Morrison do when one comes on while she's busy saving the day on set? "Honestly, I have to push through. There's no such thing as a sick day for an actor," she said, laughing. "You just keep going."
Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC.