‘Once Upon a Time’ Ending After Season 7

It’s a sad day for fairy tales, as Once Upon a Time is coming to a close.

According to a new report from EW, the long-running fantasy series on ABC is ending after its current seventh season concludes.

The series debuted as the top freshman drama in 2011, but has suffered a bit more over the past couple of years. Heading into Season 7, most of the major cast members left the show, causing a soft reboot for the series. The show then moved to a Friday night time slot.

Following the announcement that the series is coming to a close, EW caught up with creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis to talk about the decision to call it quits.

“Listen, we love this show, we were happy to continue going on, but collectively they felt that, after seven years and 156 episodes, it was time,” Kitsis said. “For us, we’re like, ‘It’s a hell of a run.’ We never thought we’d get to seven episodes, let alone seven years.”

“It wasn’t like it was a shocking phone call,” Horowitz admitted. “We’ve had conversations for a while about what this year would be, and whether it would go on or not, and if this could be the end, so we’ve been prepared for this for a while. The network has been incredible partners with us the whole way, as has the studio. Ultimately, it’s also a business, so it becomes about, ‘Is it financially viable to keep going forward?’ so there’s all that kind of stuff, stuff that we generally don’t deal with because we’re just focused mostly on the creative. We reached that point where it’s like, ‘Okay, now it’s time to wrap it up. This has been an amazing 156 episode-run, and let’s all be proud of what we’ve done and try to wrap it up.’”

The final season of Once Upon a Time returns with new episodes on Friday, March 2 at 8pm ET on ABC.