Zelena (Once Upon a Time)
In December 2013, Rebecca Mader was cast as the Wicked Witch of the West. She made multiple appearances during the second half of season three and was promoted to a series regular for the show's fifth season. The role of the Wicked Witch of the West was written specifically for Rebecca Mader. It was announced that the writers had chosen not to continue with Zelena's storyline and Mader would not be returning for the seventh season of the show. However, Mader later revealed that she would be returning for multiple season seven episodes.
Zelena (Once Upon a Time)
Unfortunately, this proves true when Zelena returns to take her still-unnamed daughter back. This leads her into a struggle with Belle and Mother Superior as a portal to the Underworld is opened. Now in Hades' realm, Zelena leaves her daughter with Robin and the heroes. She later runs into Hades, who reveals that the love he's felt for her since their first meeting has never died; he remodeled the Underworld to look like Storybrooke because he wanted to give her everything that Regina wanted. Shocked, but worried about her daughter, Zelena vows to get her back alone; Hades is willing to wait until she's ready to accept his love, and eventually gives in. When Hades asks Zelena to be his partner in chaos, the news leaves Zelena awkward and Regina (who saw this through her mirror) furious, prompting her to bring Cora in to stop this relationship from happening. The tensions between Zelena and Regina worsens until Cora intervened and restored their previous memory of having met each other as young girls, which also became Cora's "Unfinished Business" to make peace with Zelena and Regina, restarting their relationship with Regina giving Zelena a chance to help Hades. However, Gold is upset with Zelena giving Belle the spindle that placed his wife in a sleeping state in order to protect their child, and with the help of Peter Pan kidnaps her as payback to what she done to him back in Storybrooke. When Hades realize that Gold used Zelena as leverage, Hades tore up the contract to take Gold and Belle's unborn child, allowing Zelena to be with Hades, whose true love's kiss freed him from being confined to the Underworld. When Hades agreed to let everyone return to Storybrooke through a portal, he told Zelena to go first but left out the part that he wanted to trap the others (but they escaped before it closed). When they returned to Storybrooke, Zelena felt that Hades truly loved her but when Emma, Regina and Robin told her that he was using her in order to create a new kingdom, Zelena thought they were going to kill Hades because he hasn't changed, until he revealed a family heirloom, the Olympian Crystal, which he wants to use on the living Storybrooke residents that he posed as a threat. Emma showed Zelena the new pages that confirmed his plot and when she returned to Regina's office she saw Robin's deceased body on the floor and after Regina knocked the crystal out of Hades' hands she picked it up and killed Hades instantly. During Robin's funeral Zelena told Regina that has named her daughter Robin in honor of her father. ", ", ", ", ", "