Hans is a character who appeared in the fourth season of ABC's fantasy-drama series Once Upon a Time. He appears as an antagonist in the first half of the fourth season and was formerly engaged to Princess Anna of Arendelle.
He is based on the character of the same name from the Frozen franchise.
Background[]
Hans is portrayed by Tyler Jacob Moore and appears in the episodes "Rocky Road" and "Fall". The portrayal of Hans being in collaboration with his brothers in his plots differs greatly from his implied standing with his family in the film, though they still mock him as the youngest. Hans is also more sadistic and cruel, sincerely considering Elsa as a "monster" and a "freak" and even taunts Anna of possibly suffering death under the same circumstances as her mother.
Hans is extremely fond of himself and cares about nothing more than being the sole ruler of Arendelle and is not afraid to kill if it means he gets what he wants, despite his brothers' disbelief in him that he could one day be a king. His desires to be king push him to do whatever it may take, as he believes he would make a better ruler than Elsa, believing the kingdom would not want a ruler to be someone who he considers a monster with magical abilities, therefore Hans thinks he would be the better ruler.
Just like his animated counterpart, Hans tricked Anna into falling in love with him, knowing she was a princess, in an attempt to one day rule Arendelle. The two became engaged after meeting the same day, but when Elsa struck her sister with her ice magic in the heart, Kristoff took Anna to Hans in hopes he would give her a kiss of true love to break the magic spell, but he instead revealed his evil plans and showed his true nature, leaving Anna to freeze to death.
Role in the series[]
Before the First Curse[]
In a time frame set two years after the events equivalent to the events of Frozen and one year before the first Dark Curse within the general Once timeline, Hans is first mentioned by Elsa when she warned Anna about leaving Arendelle vulnerable to Hans and his twelve brothers, who are waiting and plotting to take over the kingdom as revenge for his previous defeat.
Sometime after Anna left for Mist Haven (the Enchanted Forest), in her quest to find out the mystery of their parents' tragic voyage, Hans and his army, which consists of his twelve older brothers, had set up camp in the Southern Mountains on their way to Arendelle. His brothers still belittle him for being the lowest in line, and they add insult to the injury by bringing up his failed attempt to seize Arendelle's throne during his previous encounter there. He lashes back, stating that he wasn't prepared the last time, but he found something that will help him. Unbeknownst to all of them, Anna's fiancé Kristoff was spying on them and discovered their plan: they will use a mysterious urn located in a cave within the North Valley that's capable of trapping people with magical powers, such as Elsa, then take Arendelle once she's out of the way. Though Elsa and Kristoff beat Hans to the powerful urn, he and three volunteering brothers managed to catch up.
After Hans releases Ingrid, she freezes him.
Even though they managed to dispatch his brothers, Hans holds Kristoff at sword point. He demands Elsa to either give him the urn or Kristoff will die. Unable to let Kristoff be killed, Elsa ultimately gives Hans the urn while pleading for her future brother-in-law to find Anna and save the kingdom. After Hans obtains the urn and showing off his success to his brothers, he uncaps its lid and pours out a white liquid substance. As it was heading towards Elsa to likely trap her, Hans gloated his supposed victory, coldly stating in a smug tone that her kingdom will be glad to have a real ruler instead of a monster like her. Just as the liquid substance is about to latch onto Elsa, it suddenly changes direction and morphs into a woman, Ingrid the Snow Queen. Offended by his earlier insult, she then freezes Hans into an ice statue as punishment for his cruelty, leaving his shocked brothers to flee.
Later, Ingrid brings both the urn and Hans' frozen body back to the castle and place them in a wardrobe in her old room, where Elsa and Anna, who had returned from the Enchanted Forest and was imprisoned by the Snow Queen, would eventually find them. Shocked at the sight of her ex-fiancé, Anna goes onto the defensive before realizing he's frozen. Elsa calmly comments Hans' condition is the one good thing their crafty aunt's done after her freedom before moving on with their plan to re-trap her.
After the Second Curse[]
Thirty years later, when Ingrid is in Storybrooke finally casting her Spell of Shattered Sight on its inhabitants, Hans had thawed out and managed to claim Arendelle as his kingdom. He and his brothers barged in on Anna and Kristoff, who were discussing a plan to save Elsa from Rumplestiltskin. Feigning the notion that Anna had overthrown her sister, Hans decided to have her and Kristoff arrested for treason. After claiming that the freezing of Arendelle is Elsa's doing, Anna objected that Elsa wasn't responsible, as Ingrid had done. Hans claims to doubt, likely not caring as her sister and aunt both have ice magic. Before he can have the couple taken away, Anna and Kristoff fight their way out and escape. In an effort to catch them, Hans buys Black Beard's compliance with gold to corner Anna and Kristoff. The plan works when after the deal is struck, Hans and his brothers suddenly appear and trap Anna and Kristoff. Later, Hans takes the couple to a spot out at sea known as Poseidon's Boneyard, the exact spot where the ship that once carried Anna and Elsa's parents went down. He coldly remarks that it's fitting that Anna will die in the same place under the same circumstances as her mother did, wishing they'd never helped Elsa. After having Kristoff and Anna placed in a trunk to prevent any possible rescue by a mermaid, and annoyed by her panicking hysterically when he tells them how much time has passed since Elsa is still trapped in the urn, Hans and Blackbeard have the two tossed overboard.
Later, Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff return to Arendelle via a magic portal from the Sorcerer's Storybrooke mansion and dethrone Hans off-screen, Anna punching him again, this time in the eye while doing so. It's unknown if Hans was either exiled from the kingdom or imprisoned.
Trivia[]
- Unlike his animated counterpart, this Hans is frozen by the Snow Queen before his eventual defeat, whereas he is arrested in the animated film.
- Some of Hans' Brothers are shown in the series, while they do not appear in the film, but are mentioned.
- Elsa mentions in "Heroes and Villains" that Anna punched Hans after they and Kristoff all returned to Arendelle. This is the same response Anna gave Hans in the film, but it was not shown in the episode.
- In the film, Hans was banished from Arendelle, but it is never actually stated in the finale what happened to him once Anna dethroned him, although it is likely he met the same fate as the animated character, and was banished from the kingdom.
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