Cinderella, Lady Tremaine and More: The Women of ONCE UPON A TIME Season 7

Casting news from ONCE UPON A TIME Season 7 has been coming out for months – and other than Andrew J. West as Adult Henry, every new addition has been female!

Once Upon a Time has always been a show that celebrates women, and that has never been more evident than in the casting news for the show’s seventh season. From Henry’s love interest Cinderella and daughter Lucy to the Big Bad in Lady Tremaine and everyone in between, this season’s cast is decidedly female. Let’s take a look at these new characters and what we know about them!

LUCY (Alison Fernandez)

Lucy is already shaping up to be as iconic of a character as Jared Gilmore was as Young Henry. We know from the end of Season 6 that Lucy grew up in some version of the Enchanted Forest, and her father gave her a storybook before sending her away for her safety. Tiger Lily found her in the ashes of her former home and encouraged her to never lose hope. Some time later, she tracked down her father in our world. Now she has the same task that he did in Season 1: to convince him that magic is real, and his family needs his help.

CINDERELLA (Dania Ramirez)

Known in Hyperion Heights as Jacinda, Cinderella is a different kind of princess. Ramirez explains, “My version is edgy and grounded and raw and a badass actually. She’s not this damsel in distress. Meeting the prince was [not] the end of her night, that was actually the beginning.” We see the meeting between Adult Henry and Cinderella in the recent trailer, when Henry on his motorcycle almost collides with Cinderella in her carriage. We also see a brief shot of the pair dancing at a ball. The relationship between Cinderella and Henry is the show’s new epic romance.

LADY TREMAINE (Gabrielle Anwar)

It wouldn’t be a true Cinderella story without her evil stepmother. Lady Tremaine, who goes by Victoria Belfrey in Hyperion Heights, is not shaping up to be a sympathetic villain a la Regina. Anwar explains, “So far… I haven’t seen any sides to Lady Tremaine that isn’t just God-awful yet, but I have to say I have tremendous pleasure in portraying a character that’s just so mean. It’s so fun.” Adds executive producer Adam Horowitz, “We’re going to find a neighborhood that is slowly being developed by Lady Tremaine, and what she realized is if she pushes all the fairy tale characters away from the neighborhood, and they’re all separated, they can never find each other.”

DRIZELLA (Adelaide Kane)

Cinderella’s stepsister Drizella, or Ivy in Hyperion Heights, is “deliciously evil,” according to executive producer Edward Kitsis. “She presents herself to be as evil as the evil stepsisters promise to be, but like everything in Once Upon a Time, you never know what’s underneath it.” Horowitz adds, “There’s a lot going on inside of Drizella, and she earned the evil moniker.”

TIANA (Mekia Cox)

Tiana is known as Sabine in Hyperion Heights, and that’s not the only major change to The Princess and the Frog character’s storyline. “We’re not redoing the movie,” Horowitz says. “We’re taking it as a jumping off point. We want to honor the character and make sure we’re true to it, but we have a Once Upon a Time spin.” Kitsis adds, “Her relationship with Cinderella is like Snow and Red’s. They’re roommates, they’re good friends.”

ALICE (Rose Reynolds)

Not as much is known about the new iteration of Alice, possibly known as Tilly in Hyperion Heights. Kitsis says that she’s “a character in the vein of Rumplestilskin in that you don’t quite know what she’s up to, where she’s going or where she’s been” – a fact Rumple, in particular, will find curious.

Three other cast members have been confirmed for the new season as well, though there are fewer details for them: Meegan Warner as Rapunzel, Robin Givens as Tiana’s mother Eudora, and Emma Booth as a mysterious character known only as The Witch. Of course, we also have Lana Parrilla returning as Regina, now known as Roni, the owner of a bar in Hyperion Heights; Colin O’Donoghue returning as Hook, now a uniformed cop known as Rogers; and Robert Carlyle returning as Rumple, whose new alter ego will be revealed in the first episode. With so many new faces in the mix, Season 7 is bound to be one of the most interesting yet!

Once Upon a Time returns October 6th on ABC.

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