At Disney’s D23 Expo, the creators of Once Upon a Time, Ed Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, talked at length about the fairytale aspects of their show, Jessy Schram as Cinderella and how they’re planning to mash up the different stories.

Once Upon a Time is of course the story of a girl who finds a town inhabited by fairytale characters, trapped in the real world. Speaking about fairytales as a major theme, Kitsis tells The Examiner:

For us, [hope is] what a fairytale is. It’s that ability to think your life will get better. It’s why you buy a lottery ticket– because if you win you get to tell your boss that you’re quitting and you get to move to Paris, and that’s Cinderella, right? One day she’s sweeping up and the next she’s going to the ball. Adam and I just wanted to write about something hopeful that for one hour a week you put everything aside and you have that feeling.

They also reveal that Jessy Schram’s Cinderella won’t appear till episode 4, but will be an “integral part” of the show.  Kitsis says:

I don’t really want to spoil how [we meet her], but you know, one of the things we’re doing with this show is introducing mash-ups. So if you notice in the pilot, there’s a war council with Grumpy and Geppetto, and Pinocchio, so we’re kind of presenting to the world a mash-up, and she’ll come in in that way.

It’ll be fun to see the fairytales mashed up – it reminds us of Shrek, in a way.

In the interview they also talk about the strong female characters and themes of motherhood in the show. You can read it all here at The Examiner!