After watching the first nineteen minutes of the debut episode of “Once Upon A Time in Wonderland” at Comic-Con, I was expecting stars Sophie Lowe and Peter Gadiot to be on the feisty side. In the show, Lowe (as Alice in Wonderland) and Gadiot (as a genie in a bottle named Cyrus) fall in love and bond through fighting pirates. In one scene, Lowe actually snaps a man’s neck with her legs.
While they were more polite than feisty, Lowe’s eyes lit up at the thought of going pirate fighting on a date. “I wish it was real,” she said, laughing. Both stars seemed to be big fans of the physical demands of their new jobs. Lowe puts her dance training to use, while Gadiot feels his stage experience is helpful.
Whatever they draw on for the sword fights and fisticuffs, it’s working. The show puts a modern spin on dating, plus turns Alice in Wonderland into one kick-ass heroine. Even better, her love interest (Gadiot’s Cyrus) promises to be more complex than the nice guy we first meet, according to the actor.
But don’t get too comfortable with the story as it stands. As masterminds Ed Kitsis and Adam Horowitz said, each season of this show will be a stand-alone — and while there have been no decisions about what that could mean, season two could leave Wonderland altogether. But I’d expect Lowe and Gadiot to have a more than fighting chance to stick around.
Will you watch “Once Upon A Time in Wonderland” this fall?