SAN DIEGO — Naveen Andrews is traveling to Wonderland.
The "Lost" actor surprised Comic-Con fans by joining the panel Saturday for ABC's "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland." Andrews will play Jafar in the "Once Upon a Time" spin-off. The villainous character originally appeared in the 1992 animated Disney film "Aladdin."
"We were lucky when we asked him, he said 'yes,' and we said, 'Let's save it for Comic-Con,'" said series co-creator Edward Kitsis.
Andrews played mysterious plane crash survivor Sayid on "Lost" for six seasons. He joins previously announced "Wonderland" cast members Sophie Lowe, Peter Gadiot, Michael Socha and Emma Rigby.
The first 20 minutes of the premiere episode was screened for the crowd at the pop-culture convention. The footage showed Lowe's Alice traveling from a London asylum with Socha's Knave of Hearts, falling in love with a genie played by Gadiot and encountering Rigby's Red Queen.
"We're going to find out why Jafar is in Wonderland and how the genie got in the bottle," teased Kitsis.
Kitsis said "Wonderland" would be different from the fantastical "Once" because the first season will be a self-contained story and Alice won't necessarily be traveling between the real world and Wonderland.
"We wanted to set off on a new adventure," said Kitsis.
