On a show like Once Upon a Time, death does not mean the end when it comes to fan-favorite characters like Robin Hood (Sean Maguire).
While Regina’s (Lana Parilla) love Robin Hood died at the end of season five, it was announced recently by the show’s executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz that he will be returning to the ABC series this season. Maguire will appear in multiple episodes, but don’t get your hopes up for a magical resurrection: Robin Hood is not, we repeat, not coming back from the dead. So does this mean he’s returning in flashbacks? Or perhaps some other way? Kitsis and Horowitz aren’t spilling just yet.
“We’re thrilled to have Sean back for this story arc and are excited for the audience to see what we have planned, which in the wake of his character’s heartbreaking demise, is something we hope is unexpected and surprising,” Horowitz and Kitsis said in a statement.
When Nerdist spoke with Maguire about his surprise return to Storybrooke, he couldn’t reveal much about how Robin Hood will be seen, but he did drop a tease that it has to do with Regina.
“I can’t tell you much because I don’t know a great deal just yet,” Maguire said with a laugh. “I just know how Robin is going to make an appearance and where they have suggested where this little story arc is going to go. It was a very interesting idea and I thought it was very appealing. I think it’s going to give the audience a bit more closure on this character and the relationship he had with Regina.”
Getting the call and learning that he would get to come back to Once Upon a Time after he was killed off was something Maguire never thought would happen, so he was thrilled to reprise his fan-favorite role.
“It was so nice to get a call asking you to come back to anything, really,” he said with a laugh. “It is not something you normally get to do on many shows, and generally I don’t try to go back but Once Upon a Time has been a very special little chapter in my career and the friendships I’ve made there, it’s not just a job. This one was a bit more a part of my life.”
He paused, and then added, “I mean, my son was born in Canada because of this show so it’s had a massive impact of me. And the friendships I’ve made there definitely was a big aspect of twisting my arm to make me want to get back up there and play with them some more.”
A refresher for those who don’t remember the details or maybe didn’t watch: at the end of season five, after Captain Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) discovered how to kill Hades (Greg Germann) with an Olympian crystal, Robin and Regina teamed up to take him out since the ruler of the Underworld was planning to use the crystal to end Regina. If he had succeeded, she would have been truly gone with no afterlife or Underworld, a fate worse than death. In the end, Robin sacrificed his life to save Regina’s, but the season six premiere gave us all hope that Hades was actually lying. Could Robin’s soul have moved on, giving him eternal peace after all?
“Everything that was said about the Olympian Crystal was said by Hades, can we trust him?” Horowitz said during the show’s Comic-Con panel this summer. “That’s a question some of our characters should and will ask.”
Regina and Henry (Jared Gilmore) tackled that very question in the season six premiere, and Regina chose to believe that Hades was indeed lying about completely destroying Robin’s soul, showing how far she’d come in the grieving process.
How do you think we’ll see Robin Hood return on Once Upon a Time? How will this affect Regina, who has had to lose yet another boyfriend? (She truly has the worst luck in the romance department, huh?)
Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
Images: ABC
