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‘Once Upon A Time’s’ Robin Hood To Play Ian Fleming in NBC’s ‘Timeless’ This Fall

By Jeffrey Totey
Published on: 07:53 PST, Aug 12, 2016

Sean Maguire’s character, Robin Hood from ABC’s fantasy drama Once Upon A Time, suffered an untimely death during last season that not only destroyed his love interest, the former Evil Queen Regina, but also many fans. Fortunately, they have a reason to rejoice as Maguire will be returning to the small screen this fall for another show; NBC’s Timeless, according to Entertainment Weekly. Though he’ll only appear in one episode of the new time travel show, it’s something.

Maguire will be playing the role of Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond novels in “Party at Castle Varlar,” the fourth episode of Timeless. The actor posted on Twitter this morning saying that he, “was going to keep this a secret. But I guess it’s out….I’m Fleming. Ian Fleming. Couldn’t be more excited.”

What many don’t know about the author is that before he penned his first James Bond novel, Fleming served as an undercover British agent.

“We needed a spy in Germany to help our heroes and bring them into this world… and we turned to our historian, and he said, ‘Let me work on it,’ and then he comes running in the room an hour later and says, ‘Ian Fleming was there!'” says Eric Kripke, executive producer of Timeless. “So, quickly, we realized our World War II story was really a James Bond movie, and we had the real James Bond.”

While Timeless is a science fiction show, NBC says that they will not water down historical events featured in the show. Kripke told the Television Critics Association’s press tour recently that the show is a “really visceral, grounded attack on history and we don’t sugarcoat it.” He added that since the main characters feature a female in leadership and an African-American male, Timeless will dive into different schools of thought regarding racism and sexism throughout the ages.

“So much of history as we know it is the history of rich white dudes, and yet there’s so much untold history from a minority perspective, from a female perspective,” Kripke explained. “We’re really looking for a door in to not just tell the iconic history that everyone’s heard before, but to tell a really exciting and fresh history that isn’t dusty and isn’t a school lesson, but is violent and exciting… and allows us to make commentary on issues that are happening today.”

“Timeless” (l-r) Malcolm Barrett as Rufus Carlin, Matt Lanter as Wyatt Logan, Abigail Spencer as Lucy Preston (Photo by: Joe Lederer/NBC)

Timeless stars Abigail Spencer, Malcolm Barrett and Matt Lanter as three time travelers bent on capturing a master criminal (played by Goran Visnjic) who plans to alter time. If any other time-traveling show or movie has taught us nothing else, you can’t mess with time. For Ian Fleming’s story, it is said that he takes an interest in the trio’s mission to chase down the criminal and offers to help.

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Before his work on Once Upon A Time, Sean Maguire appeared in numerous roles for UK television as well as some guest star roles for show across the pond including CSI: NY, Criminal Minds and Cold Case. Maguire also played Leonidas for the spoof comedy movie, Meet the Spartans. In 2012, Maguire also starred in the indie Ireland movie, Songs for Amy, where he played a struggling musician attempting to produce an album for his soulmate with little help from his band mates.

Timeless will premiere October 3 on NBC.

[Photo courtesy of ABC]

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