‘Once Upon a Time’ season 3 spoilers: Colin O’Donoghue on Blackbeard’s arrival

Given how long we’ve known Captain Hook on “Once Upon a Time,” does anyone else find it odd how little of him we have seen as a pirate? When the character first surfaced, he was at Storybrooke with a specific goal of revenge. Following that, he teamed up with Cora, and now seems to be fighting for the good guys. Even in some of the flashbacks, we saw him back with the Royal Navy rather than someone ready to loot and sail the high seas with rum at his disposal.

Luckily, Sunday’s “The Jolly Roger” will correct that, and take you on a trip to what Hook has been up to in the past year, including his attempts to go back to being a pirate again rather than someone trying to hang out with the likes of Snow and Charming. This means real swashbuckling for a change, and also the arrival of Charles Mesure as Blackbeard. While Colin O’Donoghue cannot say too much about the character just yet, he did offer the following tease to TVLine (which makes us fairly excited just on the basis of more pirates alone):

“Blackbeard obviously is very much a dreaded pirate, and you get to see Hook interact a little bit with him — I can’t tell you how or why, because that will give away too much – but and it harks back a little bit to all the old Errol Flynn films and stuff like that. It’s good old-fashioned, swashbuckling fun.”

Somewhere along the way, hopefully we’ll get more answers as to how he tracked Emma down, and how his feelings for her informed his choices. He’s an interesting character who we wish had more stories focused on him, mostly because much of the Snow – Charming history is mapped out, and we basically assume at this point that Rumpelstiltskin knows every single person on the show.

In a sneak peek at the link here, you can see more of Emma with Hook in a pretty intense scene. Also, be sure to sign up to get a magical dose of TV updates in your email inbox!

Photo: ABC