And the casting news just keeps rolling in. This casting article is for ABC‘s Beauty and the Beast pilot, the BATB which is the “reimagining” of the fairy tale, not The CW‘s “reboot” of the 1980s series. Just to keep you guessing, however, ABC is throwing a ringer into the mix; a man who is already playing a king on another series of theirs. Another fairy-tale-based series.

Alan Dale – Charles Widmore in Lost, King George in Once Upon a Time, and man of power in seemingly hundreds of other shows, will be playing, not surprisingly, the Emperor in this reimagined story, according to Variety who first broke the story.

Also cast is Karen LeBlanc (the creepy Anabelle from the other boat in The River) as Ehren (in the proud tradition of sci-fi shows that come up with alternate spellings of my name), the leader of the rebels who want to overthrow said Emperor Dorian; and Wendy Crewson (the woman who played the long-ago kidnapping victim in Alcatraz) will be playing Mara, a member of the Emperor’s cabinet and a friend of Grace’s, the “Beauty”, according to Deadline.

The three new cast members will be joining F. Murray Abraham as the Emperor’s advisor, the Chancellor; Christopher Egan as Gorrick, Grace’s fiance; Darius Campbell as Shiro, the “Beast,” a mercenary with whom Grace shares an interesting connection; and Grace herself, Ruth Bradley, an “embattled” princess.

We’ll keep you posted.