The concept of separating different parts of yourself will be explored in the sixth season of ABC's Once Upon a Time, particularly for Regina (Lana Parrilla).

The Once Upon a Time season 5 finale ended in dramatic fashion, with Regina ripping out the heart of her former self, the Evil Queen, only to have that former self come back in a separate form. With the Evil Queen now roaming the Earth separately from Regina, it's no secret that things are about to get ugly.

Once Upon a Time showrunners Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz spoke with Entertainment Weekly recently about Regina and the Evil Queen in the context of season 6.

"The two roles are obviously going to be very separate in the sense that we saw a snippet of an Evil Queen who looked at what Regina has become and is very disappointed," Kitsis noted. "If she's unleashed, she would show Regina what ripping away everyone's happy ending truly looks like."

"There's a lot of questions to be asked about what it means when you separate parts of yourself and can you really separate these parts of yourself?" Horowitz added.

Kitsis observed that this is what the show did with Jekyll and Hyde (Sam Witwer), particularly the idea of "can you really eliminate the darkness inside you? Is that really the best way? Those are the things we're really looking forward to exploring this season."

The show runners were also careful to say that this new arc won't unfold how you might expect. Fans of Once Upon a Time have come to expect story arcs to end either at the midseason point if it's introduced in the first half of the season, or the season finale if it's introduced in the second half. Such is not the case here.

"It's not like this Evil Queen arc will be all done by December," Horowitz said. "It might be done by week 2, or by week 22."

Once Upon a Time season 6 premieres Sunday, Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

Tags: Once Upon A Time television ABC