Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan was supposed to return to Once Upon a Time last year, but conflicting schedules prevented it. What would his role have been?
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Before Jamie Dornan’s rise to fame through the much-anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey movie, Once Upon a Time fans knew and loved him as Sheriff Graham, aka. the Huntsman – the first love interest of Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), although their romance was cut short when he was unfortunately killed by Regina (Lana Parrilla) in season 1.
Related: Once Upon a Time season 4, episode 1: Watch first 7 minutes now!
Ever since the character’s untimely demise, the fans have been clamoring for his return. We had him back for the season 2 episode “Welcome to Storybrooke,” when the show flashed back to the early days of the curse, but that only made us miss him more.
And the writers were actually planning to bring him back again in the season 3 finale, when Emma and Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) went back in time to the Enchanted Forest.
Speaking to EW, executive producer Adam Horowitz reveals that, as one of Regina’s guards, Emma would have recognised the Huntsman at the Evil Queen’s castle.
“She would’ve seen him, and it would’ve been heartbreaking for her because she would’ve wanted to reach out to him, but knowing that — because she’s on a mission — she couldn’t,” Horowitz explains. “It wasn’t a big plot thing, but it was an emotional moment that we wanted to do.”
Sadly, Dornan was busy filming Fifty Shades of Grey, and the cameo was scrapped.
Related: First Fifty Shades of Grey trailer teases Christian Grey’s dark side
While we are totally on board the CaptainSwan ship now (ahoy!), we can’t help but be sad that this planned Emma/Graham callback never happened. If nothing else, it would have been a great way to reassure the viewers that the writers remember the characters’ pasts, and that no departed character is ever forgotten.
(Let’s take a moment here to reflect on poor Emma’s dating record. Has any guy she’s made out with ever lived to tell the tale?!)
Once Upon a Time season 4, episode 1 “A Tale of Two Sisters” airs this Sunday at 8/7c on ABC.