‘Once Upon A Time’ Spoilers: Is King Stefan The Father Of Maleficent’s Child?

Once Upon a Time dropped a huge bombshell last week when it was revealed that the Charmings were responsible for Maleficent losing her child. The revelation left viewers with a lot of burning questions, and a few of them might be answered tonight during the new episode, titled, “Enter the Dragon.”

Obviously, fans want to know what happened to Maleficent’s baby and whether the child is still alive. The Once Upon a Time writers might save that mystery for a later date, but viewers will get to see more of Maleficent’s backstory tonight. Bustle points out that Supernatural star Sebastian Roché is making his big Once debut, and his character has a connection to Regina’s old pal — Roché is playing King Stefan, the father of Princess Aurora. In the Maleficent movie, young Mal fell in love with Stefan.

Sebastian Roché shared the above behind-the-scenes photos that show King Stefan hanging out with Maleficent and young Regina. In addition to learning what happened between Maleficent and Stefan, viewers will get to see how Regina and Mal became friends during tonight’s episode.

It’s possible that the Once Upon a Time Maleficent and King Stefan had a fling that resulted in the birth of her mysterious missing baby. Mal doesn’t do evil things just for the fun of it, so something had to happen that made her mad enough to place the sleeping curse on Aurora. However, there’s a possibility that their beef won’t have anything to do with a past dalliance, and Mal might prove that she’s the ultimate independent woman by finding a way to create a baby without doing things the ol’ fashioned way. During an interview with TV Line, Once Upon a Time co-creator Edward Kitsis hinted that Maleficent’s baby might not have a father at all.

“This is a show where dwarves are hatched from an egg,” Kitsis pointed out.

Because Maleficent can turn into a giant flying reptile, it actually wouldn’t be that far-fetched to assume that she can reproduce asexually. According to Live Science, a female Komodo dragon surprised scientists with the first documented “virgin birth” of its kind back in 2006. There are many other animals that can reproduce asexually. This is also Once Upon a Time we’re talking about here, so anything can happen.

As the Inquisitr recently reported, there’s speculation that Emma Swan’s friend, Lily, might be the daughter of Maleficent, and the girl is going to pop back up on Once Upon a Time sometime in the near future. Lily told Emma that she liked to believe that her star scar made her special, and she might possess some of her maybe-mother’s magical powers. However, the Harry Potter wannabe won’t have fairy blood coursing through her veins. During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Adam Horowitz revealed that the Once Upon a Time version of Maleficent is not a fairy.

During “Enter the Dragon,” Regina will have to split her time between Operation Cobra and a second side mission: finding out what Maleficent and the other Queens of Darkness are up to. Carter Matt reports that Eion Bailey will be returning to play August Booth/Pinocchio tonight, so this could indicate that Regina will get one step closer to learning the identity of the author of Henry’s mysterious storybook. August had to have some knowledge of how the book works to add his story to it, and the answers could lie in the backpack that Geppetto/Marco gave to Regina last week. Unfortunately, adult August will most likely appear in flashback form only.

You can check out a preview for “Enter the Dragon” below. As you can see, Regina is ready to join the bad girls’ club, and Maleficent is channeling Agent Carter/Storybrooke Zelena (those crazy witches love their tilted hats).

Once Upon a Time airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Are you looking forward to seeing Regina and Maleficent doing a little baddie bonding?

[Image credit: Sebastian Roché/Instagram]