Author: Alyse Whitney

August 02, 2016 9:07pm PT by Alyse Whitney

 Eric McCandless/ABC Family

The actor talks to THR about the on-screen pair’s dream wedding plans, but warns of a “downright grisly” fight against A.D.: “The games that might be played, if they’re played incorrectly, people die.”

Wedding bells may be ringing for Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding) and Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale), but the longtime Pretty Little Liars couple may not make it down the aisle.

“It’s so happy and loving — what’s going to destroy it?” Harding jokes to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Ezra and Aria’s engagement came with a big caveat: Aria finally told him the truth about accidentally killing and burying Archer Dunhill — formerly known as Elliott Rollins (Huw Collins) — so they could start their future with honesty. After all the couple has been through, Harding notes that “it would be very hard to break up their love and respect for one another” and that Ezra is more concerned with helping Aria than turning her in.

“If he was to find out who this person was or someone tried to hurt Aria, he’d be the first to start stacking bodies,” Harding adds, calling season seven “downright grisly” and warning that the new games that A.D. is playing could see “people die” as a result.

Below, Harding previews Ezra and Aria’s future and even pitches Ezria Does Europe, a spin-off for the duo with the pair as “secret agents a lá The Americans.”

The engagement seemed to come out of the blue. How long ago did Marlene tell you that Ezra and Aria would be getting engaged on this season, and did you expect it?

I totally expected it at this point in their relationship. I knew it was going that way and Marlene mentioned it months and/or years ago that was the way we’re going and that we’d see if anything changes. Ezra is a hopeless romantic and there’s so much craziness happening in their lives. With A.D. or “A” or Uber A or the Emoji King or whoever it is out there, they just want something solid. It’s a symbol of the solidity they offer each other and that’s why they did it at this time … But now, in season seven, I’m jaded.

What do you think Ezra’s dream wedding would look like versus Aria’s? 

They’re pretty in sync with each other, so they could combine dreams. She would probably do a lot of boho-chic stuff, but he would want it in one of the cities of his favorite writers like Paris or London or even further, like Prague or Lisbon. They would want a destination wedding more than anything.

Post-wedding, what’s in Ezria’s future? Finishing this book, writing more books, having kids, moving away from Rosewood?

They would try to finish the book and try to do their own projects. I don’t think they would immediately have children. I would like them to explore and be together and really solidify their careers, and then in their early-to-mid-30s, settle down. But they wouldn’t have a ton of kids — just one or two. They would just be artsy vagabonds and have a large garden in the back and Ezra would brew his own beer. Although I guess he’s sober now. They would be the couple that didn’t run the immediate traditional route.

Where do you imagine them living? Not in Rosewood, hopefully.

Geez, anywhere but Rosewood! Why are they still there, dear God? People are dying every other week. I can’t imagine the property values are very high there with the amount of murder that’s happening. I think some dust bowl in the middle of Oklahoma would be better than Rosewood. They’d probably live abroad for a few years and get as far away from the shenanigans of their Philadelphia suburb. They would try Europe, maybe Canada for a bit. 

Are you pitching a Pretty Little Liars spin-off of Ezria moving to Prague?

If the writers came to me and said, “OK, here’s what we’re thinking. It’s going to be you and Lucy Hale living in Prague, and in those five years that you were away, turns out Ezra has learned to fight.” Now we’re secret agents a lá The Americans on FX, except maybe not as violent because it will probably still be on Freeform. I say maybe not as violent, but I see some of the promos for what’s on Freeform and I go, “You know what? We’re a couple of death scenes away from Game of Thrones.” So I can’t imagine my desire to be a secret assassin in Prague is something they’d shoot down immediately.

What would Ezra’s secret agent name be?

Double-0-Sweatervest on Ezria Does Europe. That’s his secret weapon. That man can get through TSA easily because no one is going to look at him twice.

Now that Aria has revealed the truth about Dr. Rollins, will they team up to take down A.D.?

Especially after what we saw tonight, it would be very hard to break up their love and respect for one another. There are a few scenarios I could imagine playing out that might really disrupt things, but people will have to watch that. Our immediate storyline will be seemingly very lovely and then, you know, not. Nothing is ever fine and good in Rosewood.

Given Ezra’s shady past, is he more willing to look past murder in the name of love, and does that make him go further to save Aria?

After all the trauma that he’s seen, his focus has narrowed. He loves a small circle of people and everyone else can be damned. If he was to find out who this person was or someone tried to hurt Aria, he’d be the first to start stacking bodies. We haven’t seen what he would do when those he loves are really threatened. I think if someone got in the way of his future happiness with Aria, there would be deep repercussions. 

Are we going to get any closure on Nicole and if she’s dead and that phone call?

We’re going to get some closure. He was really devastated when she basically passed away and we’ve seen some closure. There will be echoes of that and it will be nice and done. Nothing to get in the way of Aria and Ezra.

How would you rank A.D. compared to the other “A” villains that we’ve know? Is he or she crazier, more vicious, smarter?

This thing, we’ll say for the sake of being succinct, is a bit more sick. There are a certain couple of things that happen that are downright grisly. In past seasons, “A” has messed with the girls and sent dolls that look like them or pictures of them while they slept. The stakes get a whole lot higher this year and the games that might be played, if they’re played incorrectly, people die. Since we went to Freeform, the rules have become a little more lax. There are a couple things that happen — one in particular that I cannot go into — that I read in the script at the table read and looked at the producers and was like, “Is that gonna get cut? How are we getting that past network?” Apparently it was already approved. It is going to be grisly. There’s definitely going to be some red dye that’s flung around the camera.

Marlene said there’s the biggest body count of the season…

Yes. There be some bodies that are stacked. 

Pretty Little Liars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Freeform.

Pretty Little Liars

July 29, 2016 10:00am PT by Alyse Whitney

Aladdin on ‘Once Upon a Time’  Screenshot/ABC Television Network/YouTube

“Every time the audience starts to figure out the show, you want to change it,” co-creator Eddy Kitsis tells THR.

When Once Upon a Time goes on a magic carpet ride in season six, it won’t look exactly like the Aladdin that Disney fans know and love. 

“[Jasmine] is a strong character with an agenda all her own,” co-showrunner Adam Horowitz tells The Hollywood Reporter, but he notes that how the character will be introduced will be a “surprise.” 

Below, Horowitz and Kitsis discuss how a band of new characters from the Land of Untold Stories will be used to help develop the core characters’ storylines, how the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) is the most “formidable” villain yet, and the changes to expect as the show shifts from half-season arcs to one full season featuring Dr. Jekyll (Hank Harris) and Mr. Hyde (Sam Witwer).

Did you have any clearance issues with Disney to get the Aladdin characters?

Kitsis: No, Disney has been really supportive since season one. The greatest thing about Disney has not only been their support, but they oftentimes will let us use their characters or talk to the people behind them. We’ve had the Frozen characters, we’ve had Ariel, and we waited until the right moment to do the Aladdin story.
 

Horowitz: The Disney feature animation side has been really generous with us and they look at the show, I think, the way we present it. We like to call it the Disney cul-de-sac. These characters can come in here, go for a spin, we play with them a little bit, and then we set them back and try not to damage them.

Did you have big plans for Aladdin and company from the beginning of the show, or did you imagine something with the Jekyll and Hyde storyline as you were brainstorming the season? 
 

Horowitz: It’s been a long time coming. We talked about using these characters pretty much since the first season, internally. It was always about the right time and when it would fit into the storytelling the way we wanted to. With the Land of Untold Stories and with Jekyll and Hyde I think you’ll see that the Aladdin, Jasmine, Jafar story folds in neatly.

Aladdin had many other beloved characters, including the late Robin Williams’ Genie and Abu. Any plans to bring them in?
 

Horowitz: There certainly are nods to the film that we all love so much, that we’re peppering in throughout. We’re, right now, focusing on those three.
 

Kitsis: Obviously, I don’t think we would touch the genie. I would like to see a monkey but I can’t promise anything. I think, whereas some stories, like Frozen, we were very faithful to Frozen, I think you will see Aladdin will have its own Once twist.

Would you say it’s a darker twist than the Aladdin we know? Jafar’s a pretty dark character — he’s one of the most evil villains of the Disney universe.
 

Horowitz: I think it’s the Once Upon a Time tone, which is to say that dark things happen but it never gets bleak, which is the difference we always draw. Despite how dark and scary things can get, there’s always a hopefulness at the core of the storytelling. I think with the Aladdin story and how it meshes with the Once Upon a Time story, the same will hold true. We’re not going to pull any punches with Jafar in terms of being a really dark and evil character.

Does Aladdin and Jasmine’s love story remain true? Is that part of the arc, or is it more about just putting those characters into Storybrooke?

Kitsis: I would say that it’s a little of everything. I think that their love story is such a central part of their story that we want to honor that. I think that we’re going to open up a new avenue for Aladdin and Jasmine in our little cul-de-sac.

How do the Aladdin characters impact the world of Storybrooke as we know it, especially as the Land of Untold Stories characters come in?

Kitsis: [In the opening scene showed at Comic-Con] we learned that Aladdin was another Savior. We find out that Emma is not the first, or the only. I would say that the fact that there’s another Savior out there and last year we dove into Dark One mythology, I’d say this year we’re going to dive into Savior mythology. That’s kind of how Aladdin would impact our characters.
 

Horowitz: In the Comic-Con footage, what we didn’t show was anything with Jasmine. That’s something we’re really excited about. The way we introduce her, we want to keep a surprise for now. When we do find her, she is a strong character with an agenda all her own, that we hope makes her another super strong, empowered Disney princess on this show that is going to be special in her own way. We loved the character in the movie and we were super excited to find something fun for her to be doing. That’s one of the surprises we’re excited to unveil this season.

Could there be more Saviors out there that bring the light to Storybrooke?

Kitsis: We are going to dive into that mythology. Whether or not there will be multiple Saviors, I can’t say.

You do have a lot of other characters coming in, like Monte Cristo and Morpheus. Will there be a laundry list of new faces coming in from the Land of Untold Stories? 

Kitsis: In season one we met the Mad Hatter, Jiminy Cricket, Cinderella and a host of fairy tale characters and learned their stories. We’re going to find ourselves in a very similar situation where the people from the Land of Untold Stories have their stories paused. We have Emma and Regina trying to help them find happiness against Hyde and an Evil Queen, who’s lurking out there.
 

Horowitz: I’d say a lot of it is akin to some of the season one stuff. For example, the Hansel and Gretel story in season one was a one-off episode but what was really important about it was how Hansel and Gretel’s journey affected Emma. That’s what we’re really focusing on. There’ll be some characters where there will be some greater emphasis on them, but there’ll be some where we meet them in an individual episode and it’s really more about: How does this reflect on Emma? How does this reflect on Snow? How does this reflect on the Evil Queen? They all will be drawn into these stories, hopefully, in ways where we’re seeing the development of our core characters and how they’re overcoming their own internal issues.

Because you’re shifting from the half season storylines to a full season with Jekyll and Hyde and the Land of Untold Stories, are you able to flesh out characters’ storylines more? What changes happened from making that arc consistent throughout the season?
 

Kitsis: I think it’s much more like we did in season one and season two where there are mini-arcs throughout the season but longer character arcs. The audience got used to us going to a new land, spending 10 episodes there, defeating the villain, and coming home. I think the audience will see that the Hyde-Jekyll, the Land of Untold Stories, doesn’t overwhelm the show. The show is back in Storybrooke and it is fairytale characters in the modern world who need help.

Did that feel like coming home to you, to go back to basics with the one storyline?

Kitsis: It really is and, as a showrunner, every time the audience starts to figure out the show, you want to change it. We broke the curse in season one, but I think we can all agree that if Emma was still denying that there was something to this town, we would have been long canceled. It’s been a really great journey but, for us, season six, five years later, we’re really happy to come home and be able to tell stories the way we did in seasons one and two.

Will the Aladdin characters be around the whole season? Are you still deciding that?

Kitsis: You never know!

Switching gears to the Evil Queen, can she be defeated if she’s stolen someone else’s heart? Would they just have to crush the Dragon’s heart to get rid of her, or is she invincible?
 

Horowitz: The Evil Queen, in this new form, is quickly shown to be formidable in a way that we haven’t seen any villain in a long time, if at all. How to defeat her, if she can be defeated, is a very big part of the storytelling. Obviously, we don’t want to say what that is, but that’s something that our characters come face-to-face with quickly.
 

Kitsis: Thematically, we want the Evil Queen to really look inside herself. We’ve seen her be redeemed, we’ve seen her realize that she can’t just resort to the Evil Queen to get what she wants. This year, we really want to get in her head and wonder: Can you separate the darkness, or is that a part of you?

Who is in most danger from the Evil Queen? Is she out for blood or just trying to take her body back from Regina?
 

Kitsis: In the pilot episode of the series, she warned, “Enjoy this happy day — she’s going to rip everyone’s happy endings away.” I think she looks at Regina as someone who failed to do that. Who is in trouble? The entire family because she has her sights not just set on Regina and Snow, but also Emma.

How will the Emma, Regina, Evil Queen dynamic change throughout the season?
 

Kitsis: The Evil Queen is kind of like the snake with the apple. That’s what she’s offering up to Regina. This is a different Evil Queen. This is one that has just been separated so she has all of Regina’s memories and thoughts and thinks that Regina has completely failed. Like any good villain, she is going to find your insecurities and exploit them.

What kind of place are Emma and Hook in now?
 

Kitsis: The last time Emma saw Hook, she kissed him and said, “I love you.” She said she wanted to tell him then when they weren’t dying, when they weren’t running, when there wasn’t extreme drama. We see that Emma is starting to try and put her life back together and keep her walls down and move forward. We’re going to see those two try to grow.

What does Belle and Rumple’s relationship look like post-sleeping curse?

Kitsis: Rumple and Belle are in a bad place. It’s going to get messy. Especially when there’s a kid involved. You can’t take a baby away from Rumple!

Once Upon a Time season six premieres Sunday, Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. on ABC.

Once Upon a Time

July 28, 2016 12:01pm PT by Alyse Whitney

 Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

Coffey will reprise his role as Holden Strauss in the second half of the Freeform drama’s seventh season.

Pretty Little Liars is bringing back another familiar face to stir things up in season seven.

Aria Montgomery’s (Lucy Hale) former love interest Holden Strauss (Shane Coffey) will return in season 7B, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Aria’s childhood friend recurred throughout season two, and the pair were in a fake cover-up relationship so Aria could be with Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding) and Holden could secretly practice martial arts, in spite of his life-threatening heart condition.

Holden also appeared in one episode of season three, trying to help Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) figure out where her ex-girlfriend Maya was last seen alive.

Holden will return to Rosewood and come back into Aria’s life in the second half of the season, which could be related to her potential engagement to Ezra. At the end of the most recent episode of the Freeform drama, there was a cliffhanger of how Aria would answer.

Since exiting PLL, Coffey has appeared on Castle, Grimm, and The Originals. He also starred alongside Troian Bellisario, who portrays Spencer, in her short film Exiles in 2013.

Pretty Little Liars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Freeform.

Pretty Little Liars