‘Once Upon a Time’ season 3 spoilers: Will Lana Parrilla, JoAnna Garcia have flashback scenes?

When the casting of JoAnna Garcia as the Little Mermaid Ariel for “Once Upon a Time” season 3 was first announced, there was one curious little wrinkle that went along with it that currently has many diehard fans of the show intrigued: She, like so many other characters on the show already, is going to have some sort of complicated past with another character.

So is this character going to be a certain person played by Lana Parrilla? The rumors attached to Regina and Ariel are understandable, given that the evil queen previously referenced a mermaid back during the show’s first season. While this is so long ago that you may not even remember it without going back and watching again, it’s a lovely little Easter Egg to help figure this out.

Unfortunately, you’re not going to get too much of an answer here when it comes to significant storyline about the character … save for that we could see a previous encounter between the two during the third season. This news comes courtesy of co-creator Adam Horowitz to TVLine, and given that Ariel is not showing up until the third episode of the season (titled “Ariel,”) it is pretty safe to assume that you are not going to see her around much before then.

The Regina story as a whole for season 3 is going to be intriguing from a couple of different standpoints. For one, we are going to see whether or not she is really willing to put forth the effort to get along with Emma and Mary Margaret on what is going to be a pretty substantial trip to Neverland; also, there is a possibility that she will run into a new love interest along the way, and she has to figure out whether she is ready for that.

ABC just released a new official synopsis for the upcoming season (check it out here), and it promises everything from action to romance and drama on the high seas.

Photo: ABC