Josh Dallas Reflects on 'Once Upon a Time' Legacy: 'It's Super Humbling' (Exclusive)

Following the fifth anniversary of the 'Once Upon a Time' series finale, Dallas reflects on the show's legacy to PEOPLE

More than five years after the Once Upon a Time series finale, Josh Dallas still has a lot of love for the show.

As the actor closes the book on another hit series, Netflix’s Manifest, Dallas spoke with PEOPLE about the incredible legacy of Once Upon a Time and its passionate fanbase, who call themselves Oncers.

In fact, many fans have drawn similarities between his Once Upon a Time character Prince Charming and Manifest character Ben Stone over the years, as both are fathers who are involved in a time jump where they don’t age.

While Dallas, 44, says he noted the similarities early on, he adds that he really started leaning into it as Manifest progressed.

“I really started leaning into it and thinking, ‘Oh, my god. Am I in The Truman Show? Is this some sort of warped sequel to Prince Charming?’” he jokes. “There were definitely some overlapping ideas and themes, which I wholly welcomed because they're great ideas and they're great themes. I fully embraced it. The Oncers and the Manifesters became one.”

Related: Josh Dallas Was 'a Mess' Reading 'Manifest' Finale: 'Crying Through the Whole Thing' (Exclusive)

In many ways, he says that being on Once Upon a Time prepared him for Manifest. “Both shows are big ideas grounded in something very real, and that's family. Being on a show like Once Upon a Time for as long as I was, somehow primed for that kind of storytelling. It's something that I really love because I think when you're dealing with fantasy, sci-fi, whatever you want to call it, you're able to get across ideas in ways that you can't in other genres."

“I really love that and I love the type of audience that those kinds of shows bring because the fans of these shows are amazing,” he says. “They're so involved and they're so smart and they're so invested that it just makes it all worth it.”

Just as Manifest established a brand-new fanbase when it hit Netflix, Once Upon a Time has continued to draw in new fans through Disney+, which Dallas says is “super humbling.”

"It's still finding an audience,” he notes. “People come up to me all the time talking about Once and saying they just started watching it and they're loving it. Or I've had people come up to me — which makes me feel old, but that's okay — they'll say, ‘You were my childhood. You got me through college, all through high school’ and that show changed their life and it's super humbling. It's just nothing but gratitude to be part of a show that was such a big part of some people's fabric of their lives.”

Related: Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas' Relationship Timeline

Dallas adds that he and his wife Ginnifer Goodwin, who played his onscreen wife Snow White on Once Upon a Time, are now trying to get their sons to watch the show.

“We keep trying to shove Once Upon a Time down our boys' throats and they just don't want to watch it,” he laughs. “I think that's probably a healthy reaction that they could care less about mom and dad on screen. But we've tried, we've tried several times to get them to watch Once Upon a Time because they're at the right age and I think they would really enjoy it. But they're just not interested at all.”

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Once Upon a Time is now streaming on Disney+, and Manifest can be streamed in full on Netflix.

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Read the original article on People.