'Once Upon A Time' finale: 5 spoilers for season 2 - 05/14/2012

The debut season of the ABC fantasy series "Once Upon A Time" ended on Sunday and saw protagonist Emma Swan take on her destined role of hero, in true Disney fashion, but the fate of the beloved fairy tale characters and their modern day doppelgangers remains as cloudy as purple haze.

The show was last week renewed for a second season, which is set to debut in the fall. Creators, main writers and executive producers Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz recently discussed the future of the series in various online interviews. Based on their answers, here are 5 things viewers can expect to see on season 2 of "Once Upon a Time."

1. More fairy tale characters will be introduced.

"There definitely are characters we'd like to still explore," Kitsis said in a video interview posted on the official "Once Upon A Time" Facebook page last week.

Season 1 incorporated characters such as Snow White, Prince Charming, the Evil Queen, the Dwarves, The Huntsman, The Magic Mirror, Belle, Rumpelstiltskin (aka The Beast), Pinnochio, Geppetto, the Blue Fairy, Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, Maleficent, King Midas, The Mad Hatter and Cinderella.

"We definitely would like to do The Little Mermaid and Rapunzel and Aladdin," Kitsis told the website TheVoiceofTV.

2. More about Emma Swan's background will be revealed.

Emma Swan, played by Jennifer Morrison, is the long-lost daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming. When she was a baby, they transported her to the modern world to save her from a curse the Evil Queen cast upon their fairy tale land.

Pinocchio, then a boy - a real boy - had the privilege of playing babysitter on her journey, as their wooden travel vessel was crafted by his father, Geppetto. Swan ended up in foster care after Pinocchio caved into peer pressure and escaped from an orphanage without her.

"We saw a first little snippet of baby Emma in her crib," Horowitz said. "There's always room for more."

"There's a lot more to explore in her character because she did come in with her walls up and she did come in very guarded," Kitsis added. "So we definitely want to explore more of her background."

3. Season 1 was not written in a vacuum.

The season 1 finale saw the trickster Rumpelstiltskin, still apparently motivated by a dark force, lead his lady love Belle to a well, pour in a bright purple-colored liquid he explained earlier was "true love," and watch as something resembling a purple version of Smoke Monster from "LOST" turn the town of Storybrooke, Maine into "Independence Day."

Kitsis and Horowitz, who were also writers on "LOST," told Collider.com that they began developing the second season months before ABC announced the show's renewal last week.

"You plant the seeds," Kitsis said. "Whether they get to grow or not, you still have to plant them. Somewhere around Christmas, we started to say, 'Okay, well, they picked us up for a full season. Provided that the second half of the season does well, we should start thinking about Season 2.'"

He told the website TheVoiceofTV that he and Horowitz "definitely have an idea" of what they want to happen in season 2.

"Hopefully there will be little signs of that at the end of this season and the finale will kind of point towards where we're going," he said. "As far as season 3 and season 4 ... I mean, we're kind of giving ourselves freedom. We're tackling it a season at a time and we have some big overarching things, but we don't want any of those to restrict creativity."

4. "Once Upon A Time" will retain its main cast members.

Swan, Snow White, Prince Charming and Rumplestilskin, who goes by Mr. Gold in the modern world, are the "core characters" of the show, Kitsis told TheVoiceofTV, adding: "But of course, you always want to bring more people for them to play with."

5. "Fairy Tale Land" is here to stay.

"We don't want to abandon either word," Horowitz told Zap2it. "That's some of the most fun to write."

ABC, which is owned by Disney, the parent company of KABC Television, which produces OnTheRedCarpet.com and its weekly television show "On The Red Carpet."