First Look: ‘Once Upon a Time’ Wonderland Spinoff Coming this Fall to ABC

It’s been denied by everyone. It’s been speculated about and rumored. Oncers have been yanked around for months but finally there’s an answer. The Once Upon a Time Alice in Wonderland spinoff is real and we’ve got the trailer and pictures to prove it.

Written by Once creator Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland begins with Alice (Sophie Lowe) recounting her adventure in the strange new land she discovered through the rabbit hole and with the mysterious genie, Cyrus (Peter Gadiot) with whom she in love.

Alice’s doctors and her father think she’s gone insane but before they can give her a treatment to take away all of her memories she’s saved by the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha) and the White Rabbit (John Lithgow). They tell her Cyrus, who she thought to be dead, is alive. Together they return to the incredible and impossible Wonderland to seek him and new adventures.

Wonderland also stars Emma Rigby as the Queen of Hearts. Fans of Once will know that Regina’s mother Cora was the Queen of Hearts in that show’s brief visits to Wonderland. How then will Riby’s Queen factor in? Is this a sign that Wonderland and Once won’t necessarily have the same mythology?

TVLine.com reports that Barbara Hershey’s Cora may reprise her role in Wonderland if the pilot is picked up. “We can’t imagine visiting that time in Wonderland and not seeing Cora as the Queen of Hearts,” said Horowitz. As for the mythology, cocreator Kitsis gave fans a little hint saying, “You will see [Wonderland] both post- and pre-curse. It will be very similar to Once in that there will be flashbacks of these new characters that take us to pre-curse Wonderland.”

No premiere date has been set yet for Wonderland, which began filming in April, except for Fall of this year, Thursdays 8 p.m. ET/PT, on ABC.