Jamie Dornan's Return to Once Upon A Time Was Cut for a Very Specific Reason
The actor had outgrown his small role on the show.
It's been five years since the last episode of the hit magical drama Once Upon a Time aired on ABC. The show became an instant success with its first season in 2011 and continued to boast decent viewership up until its conclusion in Season 7, and fans still remember it fondly, revisiting the episodes and discussing the series online.
Revolving around beloved fairytale stories and Disney characters everyone grew up with, Once Upon a Time was set in two worlds: the magical realm and the modern reality where the characters were banished by the Evil Queen's curse.
The ABC drama featured many famous actors, and one of them was Jamie Dornan of Fifty Shades of Grey fame. In the show, Dornan had a rather small role, which he could actually play again, but the star had a very specific reason not to return to the project.
Who was Dornan's character on Once Upon a Time?
In 2010, Jamie Dornan was still largely an unknown actor. He'd played secondary roles before embarking on Once Upon a Time, and it was the ABC show that really introduced him to Hollywood. In Once Upon a Time, he portrayed Huntsman/Sheriff Graham Humbert — the first season's ultimate heartthrob and Evil Queen/Regina Mills' lover.
Sadly, Dornan's character was killed off at the end of Season 1 and vanished from the show for good. However, the showrunners wanted to bring him back in a later season when the main character would time-travel to the past and meet him as one of Evil Queen's guards. Why didn't they?
He moved on to bigger roles
After starring briefly in Once Upon a Time, Jamie Dornan landed the leading role in the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise that eventually became a big hit. The actor appeared in all three movies of the series, which grossed a total of $1.3 billion at the box office.
In other words, Dornan had neither time nor a reason to reprise his minor role on the ABC show. As a star of the lucrative franchise, he was already immensely popular with fans all over the globe and making good money from his role as Christian Grey.
Undoubtedly, fans of Once Upon a Time would love to see the actor return to the magical world. However, the show has arguably wrapped up well even without Dornan on board.