Once Upon a Time could look a bit different if renewed for Season 7.

As ABC ponders a possible renewal, the numbers for Season 6 thus far tell this story: averaging 3.5 million weekly viewers and a 1.1 demo rating (in Live+Same Day numbers), Once is down 30 percent from this time last year, and currently ranks sixth among the network’s dozen dramas. As such — and with the contracts for Jennifer Morrison (read story) and other key cast members due for renewal this spring — there has been evidence that a “reset” of sorts is on the drawing board, should the show get renewed.

Having heard from series creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis some “interesting” potential ideas for the future, ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey recently told our sister site Deadline, “Regardless of what we decide to do … I think [Adam and Eddy] would put a little bit of a bow here” — what she later called “closure in this particular narrative” — “and then there is a ‘next piece’ that comes after that. So they are trying to figure out what that [next piece] is and how that works.”

Dungey similalry suggested that Season 7 could offer “a springboard in a new direction from a narrative standpoint,” in a talk with EW.com. “[That] doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re not bringing cast back, it’s just: How do you kind of hit the reset button in a way that gives you opportunity to expand the stories that we’re telling?”

Along those lines, TVLine now has a first bit of intel on how the series’ current run (resuming Sunday, March 5) will end, and in doing so tee up any possible Season 7.

Namely, the May finale will introduce a pair of guest stars, both of whom have the potential to join the ensemble as series regulars if the show moves forward. First up, the fantasy drama is casting a “strong yet vulnerable” leading man in his late 20s to mid-30s, a gent who was once optimistic and hopeful but now is a friendless, cynical recluse. That said, he still possesses a dormant, deep-seated spark of hope that waits for the right person to reignite it.

The other role being cast is a precocious 10-year-old with a “constant twinkle of mischief in her eye.” And though this girl comes from a broken home, those struggles have only made her stronger — something which will come in handy when darkness threatens “everything she holds dear.” And while the character breakdown notes that this lass “never lets the hard knocks of life get her down,” you would be wrong to guess that she is a certain little orphan named Annie.

What is your theory on Once Upon a Time’s tweaked narrative plan for any possible Season 7, and how these two noobs figure into it?