‘Once Upon a Time’ season 3 spoilers: What we know about Neverland, Peter Pan

In just a few hours, “Once Upon a Time” season 2 will drop the final curtain, and while as a writer it feels like only yesterday that we were sitting her talking about what was going to happen when magic entered Storybrooke, the question now becomes what happens in the event that Greg and Tamara are defeated, and most of the characters that we have come to care about find a way to stay alive a while longer.

We’re going to do this piece in a series of points, mostly because we don’t want to make this as confusing as a few of the plots were at times this season.

1. We will meet Peter Pan – Executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis have suggested that this will be a part of the season 3 storyline, as Neverland starts to shift slowly into view. But who will play Peter Pan, and will he be the same dreamer from the classic story? We’ll find out over the summer. Update: As it turns out, those tricky producers introduced us sort of to Peter Pan in the end of the finale … and he’s not nearly so nice of a guy as we’ve seen elsewhere.

2. You won’t be seeing as much Red – Meghan Ory is a star on the new CBS series “Intelligence,” meaning that producers will either write Red / Ruby out of the show early on, or just find a convenient way to shelve her like they have with Sidney. If she does still show up, the appearances will be rare.

3. The structure will be different – With the spin-off series “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” getting picked up, the basic idea now for the show is rather simple: air “Once Upon a Time” in two large blocks, and then the spin-off in the middle to get us through the winter months. This allows a continuous stream of storytelling, and while this is not confirmed, it could keep the same sort of problem from happening in February that caused the show’s ratings to sink.

We know that some of you may think that we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, and if that’s the case, we have something for you, as well: A sneak peek that looks specifically at Sunday’s episode. Enjoy. We’ll also take a look later on this week at some of the people we’d love to see grace the show this coming season. (Hint: Ariel will once again be a part of the list.)

Photo: ABC