A Minor Once Upon A Time Star Caused Major Drama on Set
Once Upon A Time ended four years ago, but its numerous fans still remember a behind-the-scenes scandal involving Swan Queen pairing.
Several shows proved that a powerful dedicated fandom can work wonders when it comes to high ratings and incredible viewership numbers.
In return, the creators and the stars of the shows need to demonstrate their appreciation and love for long-term fans.
Otherwise, a show could face a major scandal just like the one that broke out when a minor character enraged the Once Upon A Time fandom.
Michael Coleman playing Happy the Dwarf on the ABC show took to Twitter to tell the most active part of the fandom, who ship the protagonist Emma Swann with the antagonist Queen Regina, that their hopes to once see the pairing named Swan Queen become canon were fruitless.
In one of his tweets, Coleman wrote that fans wanting to see the female leads get together "should pitch a [different] show to ABC." In another tweet, the actor said that he knew "for a fact it won't happen" referring to the romantic relationship between Emma and Regina.
That evening, the actor had numerous arguments with Swan Queen shippers and ended up blocking many of those trying to tell him the fans gotta have hope.
Besides burying Swan Queen shippers' dreams, Coleman suggested those who wanted queer representation should be happy with Mulan/Aurora pairing. The actor went on to enrage fans by comparing LGBTQA+ people to Toyota cars. Finally, Coleman dubbed fans "hateful" and added that Once Upon A Time team shared this opinion.
"It's funny how rude the Snow Queen fans have become. It's noticed by all cast. Jen & Lana included. Doesn't look good on you," the actor behind Happy the Dwarf wrote, adding that the cast discussed the shippers negatively.
This assumption that Coleman was speaking for the rest of the cast shocked the fandom and pissed off the production team who had to address "Happygate" – the scandal's name chosen by fans – the next morning. Both Jennifer Morrison playing Emma Swann and Lana Parrilla portraying Queen Regina distanced themselves from the words of Coleman and expressed their love for Swan Queen. The show's co-creator Adam Horowitz apologized for the misunderstanding and made sure fans knew Coleman didn't speak for anyone at Once Upon A Time.
Though Swan Queen shippers never got what they wanted after all, they felt grateful for the love the cast showed them. Coleman was dismissed after Season 6 following sexual harassment allegations.