'Once Upon a Time' season 6 premiere spoilers: Showrunners tease new story arc; Regina and Evil Queen to hash it out?

For the longest time, fans of "Once Upon a Time" have seen Regina Mills as the Evil Queen. However, during the season 5 finale, a shocking turn of events saw the Evil Queen coming out of Regina's body and being a separate entity on her own.

With season 6 airing in less than two months, there are speculations among fans that Regina and the Evil Queen (both played by Lana Parilla) will battle it out to see if good will triumph over evil or vice versa. It would be recalled that Regina decided to destroy the Evil Queen during the season 5 finale, but instead, her alter ego physically split from her. Worse, after Regina ripped the Queen's heart out, the latter still continued to live and bring about destruction in Storybrooke.

Talking to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Edward Kitsis was short of saying that things will not port well for Regina coming into the sixth season. He revealed, "If she's [Evil Queen] unleashed, she would show Regina what ripping away everyone's happy ending looks like."

In the same interview, showrunner Adam Horowitz said the split would show viewers a glimpse of a different dimension to Regina's character, saying, "We're literally going inside her and pulling her apart." He also teased of a new story arc that would bring a new perspective to the characters that fans know and love, especially Regina.

"The intent is that these new characters and new stories are really a reflection of what's going on inside of our characters. With Lana and the Evil Queen, that's the starkest example, which we've already teased. We're literally going inside her and pulling her apart. There are elements of that that we're planning to do for each and everyone of the characters," he told EW.

Parilla is excited to find out how things would pan out for her character given her tumultuous experiences in the past seasons, and most especially in the recently concluded one, which saw the death of her true love, Robin (Sean Maguire). Speaking to TV Line, Parilla said she's curious to see how Regina will deal with everything.

"There's been so much evolution. She's come so far, she's been in the shoes of the hero for the last couple of years, so I'm curious to see how she's going to handle this big loss," she told the publication.

From the looks of it, Regina's devastation from last season could affect the way she handles things this upcoming installment.

"Once Upon a Time" season 6 premieres Sept. 25, 8 p.m. ET, on ABC.