‘Once Upon a Time’ season 3 spoilers: Belle and sweet confirmation

While this may have been considered a given to some, we are going to see Emilie de Ravin’s Belle on “Once Upon a Time” season 3. But how much of her will there be? The mystery that comes within this is brought on by the fact that while her love interest Mr. Gold / Rumpelstiltskin and many of the other prominent characters are currently aboard Captain Hook’s ship to Neverland, she is still stuck firmly within the city limits of Storybrooke, where she is tasked to keep watch on the town while they are away.

While we teased recently that de Ravin was probably still going to be a series regular, and the actress herself knew that she had a major role ahead, both of these news items were confirmed in a post on Twitter by executive producer Adam Horowitz. There are “big plans” in store for Belle, and there are also no thoughts of writing her off the show in the near future.

While for the time being Michael Raymond-James seems to be the only promoted actor on the show, the idea of Belle being alone in some ways in Storybrooke means good things for some of the other prominent guest stars, including Raphael Sbarge (Archie), Lee Arenberg (Grumpy), and David Anders (Dr. Whale). Even with Meghan Ory leaving the show for “Intelligence” over on CBS, she will still be showing up once in a while too. Plus, it’s also possible that Jorga Garcia could come back for more, and there could be some new characters also introduced to the world (we’re looking at you Ariel).

As for what sort of stories we could end up seeing from Belle, you better be prepared to wait a while for more on that. This is a secret that will likely be kept until at least Comic-Con in July, and maybe even longer than that.

Photo: ABC