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.
It's Not Easy Being Green (Once Upon a Time)
Gwen Ihnat of "The A.V. Club" gave the episode a B+, noting that "In OUAT’s current Oz journey, Rebecca Mader has been killing it every week as Zelena, our latest villain. It takes a special kind of screen chomping to effectively follow up a line like “This isn’t the wild west” from Regina with “No, dear…It’s the Wicked West.” The fairyback stories we’ve seen on this show can be hit or miss, but thanks to Mader and some effective CGI for once and even a nice ending twist, this Wicked-focused episode is the best OUAT outing we’ve seen in a while."