‘Once Upon a Time’ Meets ‘Frozen’: 4 Things We Hope Happen (and 1 We Do Not Want)

Ever since Once Upon a Time ended its third season with this scene, fans have been looking forward to finding out how the show would bring the beloved movie to Storybrooke. Over the past few days, we received the first crucial pieces of the puzzle with casting announcements for Anna, Kristoff and Queen Elsa.

Georgina Haig as Elsa

Newcomer Elizabeth Lail has been tapped to play Princess Anna and Greek’s Scott Michael Foster will play her boyfriend Kristoff, who will be adjusting to life in the castle after the events of the movie. Fringe’s Georgina Haig, who can be seen in CBS’s summer drama Reckless, has landed the role of Elsa. We have to give props to the show’s casting department for their spot on choices.

Elizabeth Lail as Anna

Scott Michael Foster as Kristoff

Now that we know who will be playing the roles, we can turn our focus to potential storylines for the characters and how they will interact with our favorite Storybrooke/Enchanted Forest residents. The cast and crew will begin filming season four next week, but we’re guessing it will still be awhile before we get any real spoilers so we’ve decided to take matters into our own hands. Here are four things we would like to see happen during this arc and the one thing we desperately would like to avoid:

1. Elsa and Rumple’s Backstory

Here’s what we know so far about Elsa: Rumplestiltskin was storing her in his vault where he keeps the magic that is either too dark or too complicated for him to understand. We’re guessing Elsa falls into the latter category, but we want to see how Rumple first met the queen and why he decided that kidnapping her and stuffing her in a vase was the best option. Did they make some sort of deal that didn’t go as planned? Was he punishing her for some other crime (maybe she accidentally froze something of Belle’s). We cannot wait to find out the answers.

2. Storybrooke Residents Dealing with Ice

As much as we enjoyed the journey to Neverland and NYC and all the trips to the Enchanted Forest this past season, we miss domestic life in Storybrooke. Fairy tale characters inhabiting a small town is comedic gold and we hope the show takes advantage of this when Elsa inevitably brings ice and cold and snow in her wake. We want to see the dwarves grumbling about snow plow duty and Emma and David tossing people in jail after fights break out over fender benders on slick roads. We want to see Granny’s packed with people trying to get out of the cold and we absolutely need Roland in a puffy snowsuit.

3. Parallels and Connections

We’ve said this before: this show loves parallels more than Tumblr (which already has a suggestion) and that’s a good thing. It’s a safe bet that we’re going to get flashbacks that show us Elsa, Anna and Kristoff’s life in Arendelle and we can’t wait to see how the writers parallel their lives to those of our current characters. We’re guessing there were probably still people uncertain about Elsa when she returned as queen after accidentally freezing everything. Maybe there will be a parallel with Regina as mayor now that she’s been on Team Hero, but some residents (Granny, for example) still don’t trust her.

While we’re on the subject of flashbacks, we can’t wait to see which other characters have a connection to Elsa (or possibly Anna and Kristoff or all three). Did Belle meet Elsa before Rumple trapped her? Have any of our other characters passed through Arendelle at some point? Maybe Captain Hook sailed through there or Eric and Ariel visited or maybe Anna and Kristoff headed to the Enchanted Forest to search for Elsa and came in contact with some of our favorite characters then. Is it possible Anna and Kristoff were brought to Storybrooke by one of the curses?

4. Emma and Elsa Bonding

We love Emma’s relationships with her parents and Henry. We enjoy her frenemy status with Regina. We love every single thing about Emma and Hook’s relationship (insert completely biased disclaimer here). But we’d really like to see Emma have a friend who is not a relative, her boyfriend or a friend that she inherited from her parents (we miss you, Ruby). Elsa and Emma have a lot in common. They both know what it’s like to feel completely alone, abandoned and unlovable. The writers have said that they plan on exploring the angle of Elsa being misunderstood so we think it would be a great opportunity to give the ladies something to bond over and a way for them to get to know each other and become friends.

And of course there’s the one thing we do not want to see under any circumstances: please, please, please do not make Elsa and Anna related to the Charming family or the Mills family or Rumple or Belle or Hook or Robin or anyone else who can be tied to Henry’s family tree in any way, shape or form. The family tree already has too many limbs.

Now that we’ve given our thoughts on the matter, it’s your turn. What would you like to see happen during the Frozen arc? What do you hope the show avoids at all costs? Hit the comments below and share your thoughts and theories with us!

Once Upon a Time returns for season four Sundays this fall at 8/7c on ABC.