Hook's Father Is Coming To 'Once'

We're only a couple of weeks into Once Upon A Time Season 5, but so much as happened already. The Storybrooke crew has been to Camelot and back already, and during their six week sojourn (none of which any of them can actually remember now, thanks to Emma's curse), Henry met his first girlfriend, Regina officially became the new Savior, and someone did something to upset the old Savior enough that she's gone full-on Dark One. It's been an intense two episodes, but there's still so much left to come, and one of the biggest questions people have been asking is about Hook — in particular, what's going to happen to his relationship with Emma, now that she doesn't seem to have the time of day for the former pirate unless he's ready to embrace evil again (which, when it comes to Hook, is not entirely unlikely). In any case, it seems we'll be finding out a lot more about the former captain of the Jolly Roger and what makes him tick when we meet Hook's father later this season and also get to see Hook as a child through some handy flashback scenes.

During a panel at New York Comic Con, executive producers Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis revealed that casting had begun for someone to portray Killian's father, and that we'll see the pirate himself as a young boy. Presumably Hook's father will appear in these flashbacks, which means there will be some pivotal things happening for his character later this season, I'd say. So far, all we've seen of Hook's past were flashbacks to the time just before his brother died, the event which led him to become an outlaw pirate to begin with. It should be interesting to see what the former villain was like growing up — something tells me he was pretty mischievous.

Admittedly, I haven't been much of a fan of Hook since he started pouting over his flask of whisky or whatever it is that he drinks and following around Emma like a lost puppy, wearing her down until she finally gave in to his advances. He was much more fun as an outright villain, and frankly, I'd love to see him go back to the old Hook. It would make him so much less annoying and so much more enjoyable to watch. There's more of a chance of that happening now than ever before, considering his girlfriend's as dark as they come and will likely want him to join in on the fun if he wants a chance of staying with her (though I don't actually think long term love is on the cards for them). If we're seeing Hook's past, there's likely something big coming up for his future, and I hope that future includes a bit of a regression to his shady ways. It wouldn't be too far of a stretch given that he hasn't undergone a real redemption arc anyway, so let's do this thing.

It remains to be seen while we'll be looking into Hook's past, or just how far into it we'll be going, but I suppose it's all happening in good time. What kind of man Killian's father was may tell us more about his son than we've ever known before, so in that sense, I'm looking forward to it.

Images: ABC; Giphy