Once Upon A Time': Lana Parrilla On The Villains Coming In Mid-Season Finale
Snow Queen Ingrid may be gone and the Curse of Shattered Sight broken, but our "Once Upon a Time" favorites face a new threat: The Queens of Darkness.
Ursula and Cruella De Vil are set to make their debut in Sunday's mid-season finale on ABC, and Maleficent will also return.
"It's 'Heroes vs. Villains' and the villains are definitely starting to outnumber the heroes at this stage," Lana Parrilla, who plays reformed villain Regina/The Evil Queen told Access Hollywood, when we asked about the episode.
"They're a lot of fun, these three women – one, who we've seen before, and Ursula and Cruella. What you're basically going to see is who they are and what do they want and how do our worlds sort of collide," she continued of the trios' introduction. "Regina has a history with these three women, so it'll be fun to see how they cross paths and what unfolds in that story, learning about how they met and how they sort of reunite in present time, so you'll see a lot of that in this second half of the season."
Kristin Bauer van Straten returns as Maleficent, while it is "Dracula" alum Victoria Smurfit as Cruella De Vil and Merrin Dungey as Ursula. Previously, Lana donned the tentacles of "The Little Mermaid" villain on "Once Upon a Time," pretending to be the sea sorceress in an exchange with Ariel (JoAnna Garcia Swisher).
"Before we knew that the real Ursula was going to join our show… because every interview I've ever had, people have asked, 'Who's your favorite villain?' and I said, 'Ursula, and God, I'd love to play her,' and I think that I was smart enough to plant that seed a long time ago and I think the boys – Eddy [Kitsis] and Adam [Horowitz, the 'OUAT' executive producers] – were kind enough to throw me that bone and they gave me the opportunity to play her," Lana said. "I felt so honored to play her because she's such an incredible villain – Disney villain – but, you know, it's funny, when I heard that Ursula was coming, I wasn't sure if they were gonna cast me as her again (laughs). I was like, 'Well that's gonna be difficult to do, you know, two parts at the same time."
Lana is happy to have the real Ursula in town, played by "Alias" alum Merrin.
"She's a great actress and a ton of fun," Lana said.
Aside from the evil ladies on the way, there will be more trouble for Regina and her true love, Robin Hood (Sean Maguire), whose wife is alive and in Storybrooke.
"He will have to make a very difficult decision between Regina and Marian and so you will see a bit of that this coming Sunday," Lana said.
Additionally, Sunday's episode – and when the show returns in 2015 – will continue to provide information related to the author of the book Regina is hoping to find to get her happy ending.
"There's going to be a lot of clues that sort of are going to help lead to finding this author. It's a quest that Regina's been on since Episode 2, and it's one that will continue throughout the entire season," Lana said.
