Once Upon a Time season 7 premiere wishlist: Regina, Hook, and new beginnings

The Once Upon a Time season 7 premiere is clearly going to be different from any other, save for the pilot. Why is that? Well, there are plenty of reasons, with the biggest one being that we’re seeing the show introduce a new community in Hyperion Heights, many new characters including a new Cinderella and Alice, and an adult Henry at the center of it all. Someone pushed a giant red reset button, and while events of the past will matter, there is a new curse in place and some people won’t quite remember their former selves.

There is a ton for the Once Upon a Time season 7 premiere to unpack, but what should be the (Disney pun intended) bare necessities for this first hour? In this edition of our Premiere Wishlist series, we want to do our best to piece together some of that.

1. Establish the new premise – You have to think of this almost as a completely new show, and with that the producers need to set up the new curse, effectively introduce adult Henry, and then figure out more of how he fits into Hyperion Heights. While you don’t need to explain every aspect of the new curse, it should be very clear that it’s there and having a huge impact on everyone in the town.

2. Meet the familiar characters in their new forms – Lana Parrilla is now Regina/bartender Roni. Meanwhile, be sure to give us Police Officer Hook, and Rumpelstiltskin as … well, whatever he is supposed to be. For now, the producers are keeping the alter ego of Robert Carlyle’s character a mystery.

3. Give us just a couple of newcomers – If we had it our way, we’d introduce in the premiere both Cinderella (Dania Ramirez) and the wicked stepmother (Gabrielle Anwar) and be a little patient with the rest. You don’t want to completely overwhelm anyone with too many new people right out the gate! You have to space some of this out a little bit.

4. Lucy should be a focal point – She is Henry’s daughter, and just like Henry in season 1, she is really the catalyst behind the whole operation. You really need to rely on her in order to drive the story forward in a big way. She’s the character who makes this new version of the show sink or swim.

5. Updates on Snow, Charming, Emma, and others – While Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Josh Dallas are seemingly not appearing in the premiere, it benefits Once Upon a Time heavily to allow us as viewers to know a little bit about what they are up to — or at the very least, that they are okay. If you don’t present this, you’re going to leave viewers distracted. They’ll be desperate for updates that they may not focus too much on matters at hand.

What do you want to see on the Once Upon a Time season 7 premiere?

Be sure to share some additional insight in the comments! Meanwhile, head over to this link in the event you want some additional scoop on another new character in Tiana, someone you won’t be seeing until a little later on in the season. (Photo: ABC.)