‘Once Upon a Time’ season 6: Premiere date speculation, more for Jennifer Morrison drama

Tonight on ABC, the magic is ending for “Once Upon a Time” season 5 … at least for the time being. The drama starring Jennifer Morrison and Lana Parrilla will be going off the air with a two-hour finale, and as a result of that, embarking upon a lengthy hiatus.

So when will the show be back? It’s much too early to be able to hand down any sort of specific details right now, but the best suggestion seems to be late September or early October. There’ll probably be most likely at 22 episodes once more, and the split-season format will remain.

The biggest thing that the show needs to figure out is if there is another Disney franchise or fairy-tale tradition that they can draw from for some additional material. As much as we’ve enjoyed the Underworld arc, the ratings have been the lowest that they’ve been to date. The last time the show got a significant bump was in the “Frozen” storyline in season 4, which, while it was not particularly amazing television, at least did get some more eyeballs to the show. They have to find a way to combine commercial viability and also something that pleased devoted fans if they want to ensure that there is a season 7 or season 8 down the road.

For now, it doesn’t appear as though season 6 is going to be the show’s last; things can change rather quickly, but for the time being, we are definitely hoping for the best.

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