Once Upon a Time's Sean Maguire Dishes All About Robin Hood's "Shocking" Origin Story

Plus, where does his heart really lie on the ABC hit drama: with Marian or Regina?

By Sydney Bucksbaum Apr 10, 2015 6:00 PMTags
Once Upon a Time, Sean MaguireABC/Jack Rowand

Once Upon a Time fans, our favorite hooded archer is finally back on our TV screens, right where he belongs!

Well, actually not exactly right where he belongs, since the ABC fairy tale drama picks up with Robin Hood (Sean Maguire) in NYC with his wife Marian (Christie Laing) and son Roland (Raphael Alejandro), not in Storybrooke where we want him with his love Regina (Lana Parrilla)! But hey, at least he's finally, finally, finally back on the show, right? We'll take any Robin Hood we can get.

And when we got Maguire on the line to talk about this Sunday's episode, he revealed that the episode is all Robin Hood, all the time. Yasss!

ABC/Jack Rowand

"This episode is all about the origin of Robin. That would be the best way to describe it," Maguire tells E! News. "It's interesting because it picks up from where we left off with Robin and Marian and Roland, but it also goes back into his past and we'll find out about how he became the outlaw Robin Hood."

Maguire is excited for fans to finally learn about Robin's past.

"It's exciting because I had questions about the character too, and I think this episode doesn't answer everything, but it does answer a lot of things that we've been wondering about, like how he became who he is today," Maguire says. "How did he evolve from Robin of Locksley to Robin Hood? What series of events brought that to pass? That's something that we'll be exploring on Sunday. Plus, there's Oz, there's Storybrooke, there's New York, old characters coming back like the Sheriff of Nottingham [Will Traval], so it's going to be a really great episode."

Fans will get to see flashbacks of a very important meeting between Robin and Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle) that will set Robin on a life-changing journey.

ABC/Jack Rowand

"Robin has an encounter with Rumpelstiltskin and he's going to be asked to do something that is going to prove to be tough," Maguire previews. "If he decides to ultimately do it, or if he'll succeed or fail, we don't know. But what we do know is that anyone that has dealings with Rumpelstiltskin, normally, it doesn't end well. Robin and Rumpelstiltskin have quite an interesting journey in this episode. It's not all what you'd imagine."

And that journey sends Robin to the land of Oz, where he's come face-to-face with the Wicked Witch (returning guest star Rebecca Mader)!

"Rebecca and I are like brother/sister. Working with Bex was such a joy," Maguire says. "We were both excited to work together and see our characters have a face-off with each other. Robin is a normal human and doesn't have magic, so when you come up against someone like this who has magic, from my point of view, I'd want to get the hell out of there as soon as possible! I don't want to give too much away, but you need to remember he's just a mortal guy so it's not like he can't go toe-to-toe with Rumpel or the Wicked Witch or the Evil Queen."

ABC/Jack Rowand

In present day, Robin's going to find himself in a very new and scary place: New York City.

"Like everyone who's ever arrived in New York, you're immediately overwhelmed by the scope and size of the city," Maguire says. "Having just come from Storybrooke and the Sherwood Forest, which are very quiet, small and sleepy towns to a certain degree, coming to New York you're immediately bombarded with how different and massive it is. It's quite frightening."

He continues, "But Robin, being the leader and husband and father that he is, takes charge of his family. But even he is a little lost and bewildered by being in this new, modern city and having just left Regina, his love and where his heart lies. He knew he had to leave and do what's right but he's in all sorts of confusion at the moment. How does he reconcile that?"

ABC/Jack Rowand

Will he remain determined to stay with Marian, or will he follow his heart and try to get back to Regina in Storybrooke?

"That I can't really say. This whole hour will deal with what he's thinking and what he's going to do," Maguire says. "We'll go on that journey with him as he decides what he's going to do, how he feels. Things are going to be hard for Robin, that's for sure. He misses his love! We'll see his feelings for both Marian and Regina, and where his future lies."

And if you think you know where this episode is going (like most of the fandom believes they do!), Maguire promises that you don't.

"We know the fans are aware of certain things that may be happening but we have a couple of surprises that I don't think that anyone is aware of," Maguire says. "There is some stuff that is really going to shock people coming up, especially at the end of this episode. There's something coming that I certainly had no idea it was coming. It's going to blow people's minds. It's shocking."

Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC.