Once Upon A Time Vet Ginnifer Goodwin Just Landed Her Next TV Lead Role

Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin in ABC's Once Upon a Time

Snow White is back -- with a vengeance! Once Upon a Time star Ginnifer Goodwin has joined Lucy Liu in the cast of Why Women Kill, which will be premiering on the CBS All Access streaming service. She'll play one of the leads in the drama/comedy from Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry.

Why Women Kill will follow three women in three different decades -- a housewife in the 1960s (that's Ginnifer Goodwin's character), a socialite in the 1980s (to be played by Lucy Liu), and a lawyer in 2018 (star not revealed yet). All of the women will be dealing with infidelity in their marriages. The series will explore how the roles of women may have changed over time, but their reactions to betrayal have not.

Here's the description for Ginnifer Goodwin's 1963 housewife character, Beth Ann (via TheWrap):

She is kind, cheerful and warm. But if you get too close, you start to see that she wears a mask to hide her pain. Beth Ann’s whole world revolves around her husband, and so she is understandably defensive and immediately in denial when told Rob is having an affair. Determined to learn the sordid details for herself, Beth Ann is in for a life-changing shift of perspective.

Uh oh. This dark look into a marriage sounds very different from the fairy tale love story of Ginnifer Goodwin and former Once Upon a Time co-star Josh Dallas. They met as Snow White and Prince Charming on that ABC series, fell in love on screen and off, and now have two kids together. He's busy keeping us speculating on NBC's Manifest, and she's been busy with several projects.

In addition to this new lead role, Ginnifer Goodwin will be in Netflix’s Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, and the Big Love alum will also appear in an episode of Jordan Peele's The Twilight Zone. Plus, it's possible she'll be bringing her Judy Hopps back for another Zootopia movie (or two?).

CBS All Access gave Why Women Kill a straight-to-series order back in September. Here's what creator Marc Cherry said about the show at the time (via Deadline):

As much as we like to think that the institution of marriage has evolved over the past few decades, infidelity still has the ability to rock us to our core. Why Women Kill will explore what happens when women’s primal instincts are unleashed with unexpected and twisted consequences.

Here's CBS's description for Lucy Liu's '80s character, Simone (per TVLine):

Elegant, stylish, effervescent, Simone is the picture of urbane confidence, moving through the world as if it were a delightful movie starring herself. Smugly superior, a woman for whom appearances mean everything, she thrives on shopping and throwing parties, seemingly happily married to her indulgent husband, Karl, who thinks she is simply fabulous. However, despite nagging premonitions, Simone is devastated, her world upended, when she learns that Karl has been cheating on her.

Sounds intriguing so far. Now we wait to hear who is cast as the lead in the modern timeline, and get a premiere date on CBS All Access. In the meantime, keep up with everything currently airing with our handy midseason 2019 TV guide.

Gina Carbone

Gina grew up in Massachusetts and California in her own version of The Parent Trap. She went to three different middle schools, four high schools, and three universities -- including half a year in Perth, Western Australia. She currently lives in a small town in Maine, the kind Stephen King regularly sets terrible things in, so this may be the last you hear from her.