‘Once Upon a Time’ season 5 spoilers: The importance of Belle moving forward

It’s understandable that there would be questions surrounding just how important Belle would be moving further into “Once Upon a Time.” After all, much of it is a matter of analyzing the situation. She was left out of the Underworld at the end of season 5A, and with Emilie de Ravin expecting, it wouldn’t be a shocker if the show gave her a slightly-lighter schedule similar to what Ginnifer Goodwin has had over the years.

What we’re hearing now, though, certainly suggests that Belle fans are going to have quite a bit to look forward to still. Speaking to TVLine, co-creator Adam Horowitz offered up the following as reassurance:

“We have plans to keep Belle busy … Although she didn’t get on the boat [to the Underworld] with our heroes, she’s important to the story and becomes very involved.”

One thing that is certainly going to happen for Belle is the aforementioned flashback story in the second half of the season, where we are going to see a new actor in the role of Gaston. In this story we’ll get a much greater chance to see where Belle was in her life before Rumpelstiltskin entered it, and that should be a nice juxtaposition to where she is now. We probably feel for her more than almost any other character, largely because she often finds herself so intertwined with someone who routinely chooses power more so than a romance with her. The fact that he is the Dark One once more really doesn’t offer up much reassurance that things are changing.

New episodes begin airing on ABC starting on Sunday, March 6, and you better believe we’ll have some further news before then!

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