'Once Upon a Time' season 6 spoilers: EP teases new show format; series to focus on 'smaller arcs'

The executive producers for "Once Upon a Time" are dedicated to giving fans of the show a great experience next season. There will be a season makeover in the upcoming run, the approach being that of a new format placing focus on "small town stories and smaller arcs," something like the way the series started with. It's not only that. Stories are going to be plucked from The Land of Untold Stories, an inexhaustible trove of characters and tales from which the show can draw.

One of the series' EPs, Edward Kitsis, told Entertainment Weekly, "This season is going to be different from past because it's not going to be Hyde comes to town, we fight with him for 10 episodes, and then in the winter finale, he dies and we move on."

"Once Upon a Time" season 6 will instead have a full-story run with 22 episodes, not halved as in the past seasons. Kitsis revealed that, with this plan, viewers will get a closer look into the core characters and a chance to get to know them better and see them in a new light.

The show is also bringing back some of the old characters from past seasons, including Ruby (played by Meghan Ory) and Dorothy (played by guest stars Matreya Scarrwener and Teri Reeves). The great thing is that most of this will be happening in Storybrooke, as Kitsis revealed, with some flashbacks to other realms.

"What's really exciting about it is, for season 6, really being in Storybrooke again. As we hinted in the finale last year, in seeing the Evil Queen [Lana Parrilla] split, it's allowing us to do that for a lot of our characters — not as literally — but it's turning inward on a lot of these characters that we've been with for five seasons so far," she said.

So the next season of the show is to be a veritable mix of the "old" and the "new," as Kitsis put it.

It is exploring the characters who were introduced in the previous season: Nathaniel (Hank Harris), who is a meek but troubled patient in a mental hospital, and Jacob (Sam Witwer), a bully of a warden who enjoys taunting patients.

It looks like there may also be a big wedding for the reunited pair, Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) and Captain Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) after the last season finale brought them back together. Kitsis, though, avoided giving this a confirmation, saying, "I would say you'll have to watch season 6, you never know what's going to happen."

"Once Upon a Time" season 6 is expected to be back on ABC in the fall.