How far would you go to protect your loved ones? A revelation that will destroy a family in Once Upon a Time, next Sunday on ABC

Thanks to my friend Holly for the captures!

Once Upon a Time may be saying goodbye to Frozen, but the ABC fairy tale series won’t be void of villains for very long: A trio of evil familiar faces will make their debut in Sunday’s winter finale. EW has the exclusive first look at Maleficent (Kristin Bauer Van Straten), Ursula (Merrin Dungey) and Cruella de Vil (Victoria Smurfit), otherwise known as the Queens of Darkness.

How were these three characters chosen to join the residents of Storybrooke? Executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis walk us through the process and tease the new foes:

Maleficent’s new costume appears to be very similar to the one Angelina Jolie wears in the film that came out this summer, in which Maleficent isn’t necessarily evil. Is the costume change a hint?

KITSIS: It’s [costume designer] Eduardo [Castro] getting creative. [He] loves to change the costumes. If you notice, sometimes Lana will have 20 changes in an episode for no reason other than we can.

HOROWITZ: To be completely honest, Maleficent appeared in the second episode of the show. Now, everyone–the writers and costume designers—have had more time to really develop the character on a character level, a visual level and special effects level.

KITSIS: I would say she’ll probably have a few more dresses before we’re done.

HOROWITZ: As far as the movie Maleficent goes, we were big fans of that movie, but we’re not doing that movie. We’re doing our spin on Maleficent. There may be nods to that movie and the classic Maleficent story—

KITSIS: Definitely nods to the classic. As Adam said, we introduced her in episode 2, so we had already been thinking about her on our own. So like Frozen, we’d stick more towards the movie. This is a case where this half of the season is going to be much more of the Once twist on all of them.
HOROWITZ: One of the things we established very early on with Maleficent in season 2 was that she and Regina had a relationship, so that’s a thread we intend to explore.

You can read more about the Queens of Darkness at EW

Kristin Bauer van Straten has booked a return trip to Once Upon a Time.

EW has learned exclusively that the True Blood alum will reprise her dastardly role as villain Maleficent during the second half of Once’s upcoming season.

Could this mean that Maleficent will be season 4’s other big villain after the Frozen storyline? It’s unclear as of now, but Bauer will be back as a recurring guest star for a big arc, so here’s hoping this means the show will dive more into her past, as well as Aurora’s history.

The last we saw of Maleficent, she was locked away in a cave under the clock tower, stuck in dragon form until she was slain by Emma in the season 1 finale. She then came back in nightmarish zombie form at the end of season 2.

Once Upon a Time returns Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

EW