I did a little bit of a head tilt when I read that rocker Marilyn Manson will be popping up in season three of Once Upon a Time, but after reading who he’s playing… yeah, I see it. I definitely see it.

Manson will provide the vocal stylings of Shadow, “a character whose voice will give life to the very essence of Neverland,” according to Rolling Stone. Shadow was first introduced in the Peter Pan-themed episode of Once‘s second season and has so far popped up as one of the primary antagonists of the third season, which sees Our Heroes cavorting around Neverland.

In true Once fashion there are some differences between Shadow and the way he was envisioned in the Disney movie he was pulled from. (Yes, yes, I know the Disney movie’s not the original source. But Once pulls from the Mouse House. Let’s keep going.) In Peter Pan the Shadow is mischievous and a bit of a jerk but all in all is, like Peter, a good person. Well, shadow. But in the show Peter a big bad and the Shadow’s an evil monster who likes to steal souls.

Say showrunners Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz:

“We’ve always been enormous fans of Marilyn Manson. We wanted to cast someone with the vocal ability to make our skin crawl.”

It seems a weird career move for Manson, but hey, he’s a smart dude and can do whatever the heck he wants. As for me, I might have to catch up on Once‘s first season in time to hear the Shadow speak. I heard Aurora/Mulan—or at least Mulan’s love of Aurora—is canon now? What have I been missing?!

(via: Rolling Stone, picture by Daigo Oliva)

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