Once Upon A Time had some great villains, but unfortunately, Jafar wasn’t one of them. ABC’s fantasy drama Once Upon A Time ran for seven seasons between 2011 and 2018 and introduced a whole host of fairy tale inspired characters and familiar Disney faces, from Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood to characters from Frozen and Brave. Despite all the heroines and heroes that popped up, one of the best things about Once Upon A Time was its dastardly villains.
Over the course of its seven seasons, the fairy tale drama featured some amazing bad guys. Rebecca Mader’s portrayal of Zelena the Wicked Witch of the West (borrowed from L. Frank Baum’s Land Of Oz book series) was fantastic, as was Robert Carlyle’s Rumplestiltskin. Once Upon A Time also did a particularly impressive job with Peter Pan (Robbie Kay) who was re-imagined as an evil character so obsessed with being young that he’ll stop at nothing in order to maintain his youth.
Unfortunately, Once Upon A Time didn’t do so good a job with Jafar of Aladdin fame. Jafar was first introduced in the spin-off show Once Upon A Time In Wonderland and was originally played by Lost’s Naveen Andrews. Although the spin-off received middling reviews and only lasted for one season, Andrews gave a great turn as the villainous Grand Vizier of Agrabah despite the seemingly unlikely mash-up of Alice In Wonderland and Aladdin. In Once Upon A Time In Wonderland, Jafar is imagined as the illegitimate son of the Sultan and formed an uneasy alliance with the Red Queen (Emma Rigby) as they plotted to change the laws of magic.
The problem with Jafar really started when he was imported into the main Once Upon A Time show during season 6. As Naveen Andrews was tied up shooting the Wachowskis’ sci-fi drama Sense8, the role of Jafar was taken over by Israeli actor Oded Fehr of The Mummy fame. It wasn’t that Oded Fehr was lacking in talent, but rather that he wasn’t given a great deal to do in Once Upon A Time.
Although Oded Fehr’s Jafar had the potential to be a deliciously evil villain, his character felt haphazardly inserted into the show’s timeline purely because Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) and Princess Jasmine (Karen David) were introduced to the show. Adding insult to injury, Fehr’s Jafar only appeared in three episodes of Once Upon A Time. If he’d been given more screen time and a bit more to do, this version of Jafar could’ve been great instead of being one of Once Upon A Time’s more disappointing villains.
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