Cyrus

"When you really love someone, you don't need proof. You can feel it."

Cyrus is one of the main characters of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. A genie trapped in a bottle, who would grant three wishes to whoever found him, Cyrus was doomed to spend his loveless life attached to whomever became his master, until he met Alice, for whom he fell in love. Together they travelled great distances and fought many foes, and grew closer and closer, until Cyrus was torn from his lover as part of the plan of two malevolent, powerful villains, Jafar and the Red Queen, who had great plans for the genie, his bottle, and the wishes he'd granted his lover. However, Cyrus' true love for Alice is more powerful than any magic and any wish, and he will do whatever it takes to be reunited with her.

Before the Curse
In the land of Agrabah, the dangerous and powerful Jafar visits a merchant, having noticed all the good fortune that has come his way recently, such as that he earns very little income but his home is very well acquainted, that he has a garden of fresh vegetables out back and two camels outside where most men in the market place can barely afford either. The merchant tries to argue that he has merely been very fortunate and Jafar comments that he has everything a man could possibly wish for, suggesting that he has perhaps met someone who can grant them. Pretending that his good fortune merely comes from family investments, the merchant makes his way into a back room, telling Jafar that he wants to turn off his stove, when in actuality he wishes to alert his genie, Cyrus, that the man with the serpent staff is there, referring to Jafar. Cyrus, worried, tells the man to leave, but instead, the merchant wishes for Cyrus to be gone; to be as far away as possible. Jafar bursts into the backroom, outraged that he was unable to steel Cyrus, and the genie's bottle is meanwhile transported to Wonderland with him in it, resting in the foot of the hedges of the Queen of Hearts.

Early Life
Upon returning to Wonderland, Alice manages to track down the White Rabbit and capture him in a bag as proof that she didn't make up such a place after her original visit. She then manages to steal a piece of magical mushroom from the Caterpillar and runs deep into Wonderland, despite his pleas to give it back. She finds herself in the Queen of Heart's maze, being chased by the royal guards, so she and the rabbit eat the mushroom to shrink and avoid being captured. She hides beneath the hedges in the maze and comes across a golden bottle. She climbs inside to seek refuge, but discovers that a genie is living inside. Cautious at first, Alice threatens to grow herself and break the genie's house. She feels safer once the genie introduces himself as Cyrus and welcomes her kindly. The two begin talking and learn that they're both strangers to Wonderland, causing Cyrus to ask if she needs to go home soon. She explains that she has what she came for, proof that Wonderland is real, and she shows him the White Rabbit. Cyrus wonders if the proof is for a husband, but she tells him its for her father as he thinks she's insane. Cyrus is shocked that Alice is risking her life for somebody who doesn't believe in her, stating that when you love someone, you don't need proof because you can feel it. Alice isn't so sure, claiming that most things from Wonderland are impossible in her land, but he tells her that she found his bottle, so anything is possible. Cyrus then grants Alice three wishes.

Cyrus exits his bottle along with Alice, who lets go the White Rabbit, and he tells her again that his will is hers and that she now has in her possession three wishes, explaining to her the four laws of magic (he cannot be asked to kill someone, bring back the dead, change the past or make someone fall in love). The two of them later get a drink together, where Cyrus tells Alice that being a genie means that he never stays in one place for too long and people are always after him. She wonders if anyone is after him currently, and he warns her against Jafar, a dangerous man with a serpent staff who he hopes she never meets. After telling her of his skills with a sword, Cyrus gives Alice an origami rose which smells like real roses, due to the paper it's made out of being magic. Alice asks the genie if he would teach her how to use a sword, and he promises to do so; during her first lesson, she learns rather fast, and her and Cyrus end up kissing by the end of it. One morning when the two of them wake up, Cyrus asks Alice to make her wishes so that she may move on as he's scared he's falling in love with her. Alice promises to never use her wishes so that she can be with him forever, and the two of them decide to bury Cyrus' bottle together in order for him never to be summoned by anyone ever again. Unbeknownst to them, however, the White Rabbit sees them as they bury it, meaning he knows the bottle's location.

Cyrus takes Alice to see the falling stars, where she learns that he was once human, as was his mother, whose magic compass he still carries around with him, not knowing whether she's alive or not. Alice has barely any time to express her sympathies, as a sword is soon put to her genie's throat, and the couple are forced to battle off a group of genie hunters. Once the fight is over, Alice bleeds profusely from her midsection, having been cut, and so Cyrus takes her to the home of the White Rabbit where his wife heals her. The White Rabbit soon scolds Cyrus for constantly putting Alice in danger, and despite the genie's protests, he soon realizes that the rodent is right. He then visits the Caterpillar in the Underland and offers him something in exchange for the prospect of he and Alice disappearing - his mother's compass. Cyrus then takes his true love, who's still healing, to an invisible home in the Outlands; a place they can return to after each of their many adventures together.

A long while later, having now fallen in love, Cyrus and Alice visit the Boiling Sea, where they watch it from a ledge on the rocky cliffs. Alice comments on how amazing it is in person, and Cyrus tells her she's the same. As the two look lovingly at each other, Cyrus apologizes and explains that he was always the one granting wishes, not making them. Alice asks what he's talking about, so he explains that throughout his time as a genie, all he wanted to be was free, but now he has another wish. He gets down on one knee, trying to mimic a proposal from Alice's land, but before he can give a speech, Alice agrees cheerfully. The two of them embrace in a kiss and then Cyrus shows Alice his necklace, which is glowing red, stating their hearts are entwined, so from now on he'll know when she is near. However, this moment is soon ruined when the Red Queen arrives with her armed guards. The Red Queen attempts to capture Cyrus, but he and Alice fight off the guards. When it seems like they've won, the Red Queen gives a flick of her hand, pushing Cyrus backwards and down into the Boiling Sea. Alice watches in horror, screaming his name as he falls to his apparent death. However, unbeknownst to her, Jafar is waiting on the cliffs with his magic carpet and he catches Cyrus, taking him prisoner.

Season 1
Alice is visited by the Knave of Hearts in her asylum back in a land without magic, being told by him that Cyrus is still alive. With Will's help, Alice is able to escape the facility, before undergoing a procedure that shall cause her to lose her memories, and jumps down a portal created by the White Rabbit, who aids in her escape. Now back in Wonderland, Alice is disappointed to hear that the White Rabbit didn't actually see Cyrus as stated, but rather he heard it from the untrustworthy Dormouse. Still believing he could be alive, Alice decides to make it to the Mad Hatter's house anyway, as that's where he was last supposedly seen. When she makes it, however, Cyrus is nowhere to be found, but outside, Alice finds his magical necklace and takes this to mean that he's still alive somewhere. Elsewhere in Wonderland, Cyrus senses that Alice has discovered his necklace and is shown to be locked in a large cage hanging from a long chain in Jafar's palace. As Jafar returns to his prisoner, Alice, Will and the White Rabbit are seen to be continuing their search for Cyrus.

Cyrus wakes up with a start in his cage when he again feels Alice's presence in Wonderland via his magical necklace, which causes the old prisoner in another nearby cage to ask him if he's alright. Later, Cyrus is inspecting the burn on his arm and the same old prisoner, who knows it's from his cage's bars, realizes why Cyrus' is the only cage made from silver, and Cyrus explains that genies and silver "don't mix". To take his mind off the pain, the prisoner attempts to continue the makeshift game of chess he started, but Cyrus says that he has something else to do, before going on to write a message on a piece of magic paper he owns. He soon fashions it into an origami swan and forces his hand through the bars, much to his discomfort and pain, telling the swan to find Alice. After it flies away, Jafar returns to check on his prisoner and the Red Queen stops by to announce that she has procured Cyrus' bottle, which levels the playing field between her and Jafar. Meanwhile, Cyrus' swan finds Alice and delivers the message, and she sends one back assuring her true love that she's coming for him.

Cyrus' cage is lowered so that he may witness Jafar and the Red Queen enjoying a banquet together. Jafar then reveals the dinner's centerpiece: the origami swan he sent to Alice. The dark magician tells Cyrus that his true love wrote back: "I'm coming for you!", but this does not worry him, and he and the Red Queen begin looking for a way to force Alice to make one of her wishes. The two villains search through a book of magical monsters, wondering which would be the best to send after Alice, and Jafar notices Cyrus' worried reaction when they talk about the Bandersnatch; he decides that this shall be the beast that they send. However, the Bandersnatch is easily killed by Alice and Will as it's, as Cyrus taught her, dumb and can barely see. Cyrus then tells his friend in another cage that his plan worked, as if they sent a Bandersnatch after Alice, then she can surely handle it with ease.

When a gluttonous guard eats chicken in front of Jafar's prisoners, Cyrus beg for some, and is eventually given the scrap-less carcass. The old prisoner in a nearby cage is surprised to have seen Cyrus beg like that, but the genie reveals that he didn't want the food, he wanted the wishbone within it. He snaps it in half, and when Jafar's servant Orang sees him holding the larger half, he takes it and drops it to the bottom of the pit that the two cages are suspended over. Later, Alice makes her first wish and Cyrus is forced to grant it, which disappoints him greatly; Jafar soon comes to gloat, and after the dark magician leaves, Cyrus reveals that he still has the smaller half of the wishbone. He tells his prisoner chum that wishbones do not actually grant wishes, and that this is a myth started by genies to make humans believe that they didn't need to seek a bottle to find magic. However, if a wishbone is broken, then it will long to reconnect with its other half. He then places the smaller part of the wishbone to the cage's floor and the larger part flies up from the dungeon's bottom in order to reattach itself. Cyrus uses the bones' magnetism to begin cutting through the floor of his silver cage.

Cyrus manages to cut a full circle in the floor of his cage using the wishbone, making a large hole through which he is able to fit. He assures his old prisoner friend that today is the day they get out, and the prisoner, who's regularly taken out of his cage and beaten by Orang, tells him of the palace's layout and the shifts of the guards. When Orang, Jafar's guard, is on duty, Cyrus swings his cage back and forth and manages to jump from the hole in the bottle, making it onto the dungeon's platform. He then manages to push Orang from said platform, killing him, and throws the key to the cages to the old prisoner. However, to the genie's surprise, the prisoner drops the key and asks to be left there so that he won't slow Cyrus down, and Cyrus wishes his friend good luck before leaving. Cyrus soon makes it out of the palace after a brief run-in with the White Rabbit and makes an out-loud promise that he is coming to find Alice. When he does so, he sees her on the other side of a large forest; his magical talisman glows red around her neck, making her noticeable.

Cyrus manages to climb his way down the cliff on which Jafar's tower is situated, all the while the dark magician's knights are after him. He is chased through a forest and backtracks his footsteps when he comes to a river in order to confuse the knights, who go the wrong way, but this isn't enough to fool the Red Queen, who too is in pursuit of him. She uses magic to track him to his true location, and as Cyrus runs to his true love, he realizes that he is in fact on an island floating in the sky, whereas Alice is down on the ground. He soon comes to the edge of the floating island, beneath which is Wonderland's ocean, and is then approached by the Red Queen. She mocks him, telling him that true love isn't enough to get to Alice, but when Cyrus sees the light from his necklace glow from far away around Alice's neck, he assures the Queen that she's wrong, and jumps over the edge.

After having jumped from the floating island containing Jafar's tower in order to escape capture by the Red Queen, Cyrus lies unconscious on the beach of Wonderland, whilst his true love Alice and her friend Will continue searching for him. Alice is filled with utter joy to learn from her father Edwin, who has been locked up in Jafar's dungeon and learned of Cyrus' escape, that the genie is alive and on the ground, looking for her. After using another one of her wishes to send her father home, Alice continues searching for Cyrus with Will, but is now more optimistic as she knows it'll be all the more easy thanks to his escape. Meanwhile, Cyrus, who's still unconscious on the beach, wakes up and utters his true love's name, "Alice..."

Cyrus is running through the woods of Wonderland, wanting to make his way to the home he shared with Alice in the Outlands, when he's caught in a grapevine trap, which hangs him upside down by his ankle. The Red Queen soon comes to collect him, dropping him into her carriage, and they stop by her old wagon to collect his bottle. They then return to the Queen's palace and see it's been wrecked by Jafar, meaning he's after her and wants to kill her, so the two of them make their way to the Outlands to find Alice and Will. Cyrus is soon reunited with his true love, who is less than happy to see the Red Queen with him, but he assures her that she's there to help them. A deadly storm created by Jafar is fast approaching and they need to escape Wonderland, but Alice refuses to as she cannot trust the Queen's word, and nor can Will. Cyrus, being able to read people and having previously suspected that the Queen had a secret desire, believes her to be telling the truth, and Anastasia soon reveals that the only reason she formed an alliance with Jafar was so he could change the laws of magic and she could change the past, going back to a time where Will loved her. Alice soon tells the White Rabbit, who's with them, to dig a portal, but a lightning strike from the storm soon zaps down, and the Queen deflects it with Cyrus' bottle. This, however, knocks it into Will, who collapses, and Alice collapses also, having tied her fate to the Knave's with her first wish. Cyrus begs her to save herself with her final wish, but Alice refuses to send her true love back into the bottle. However, Will reveals that the last wish is his, as Alice promised it to him should her help her reunite with Cyrus, and the Knave wishes to end Alice's suffering. Not only does this save her from the brink of death, but it frees Cyrus from his binds also, meaning he isn't a genie anymore... but Will has disappeared. He is now a genie, trapped in Cyrus' old bottle, which heads down a waterfall.

Alice wakes up happy in Cyrus' arms but is soon aggravated by the Red Queen's presence, and even more so when she finds out that Will is the new genie of the bottle and so needs to be rescued. The three of them begin trekking through the forest of Wonderland but Anastasia is soon taken by a pack of angry villagers. To find her, Cyrus uses the in ingredients of his surroundings to cast a simple locator spell on a piece of her dress that has torn away, causing the little piece of fabric to float towards its owner, leading the happy couple straight to Anastasia. They eventually find her, tied up by her disloyal and angry subjects, and offer to pay for her life, Cyrus telling them that they become no better than she is if they kill her. However, when they find out they have no money, Alice and Cyrus are tied up with the Queen as well, with lanterns lit up all around them. The fire attracts some of Wonderland's wildest and deadliest beasts who set there sights on the trio, even after they manage to extinguish each fire. The thing that lures them now is the bright light from Alice's necklace, and so she is forced to part with it, throwing it away as a distraction as she slips out of her ropes and unties her friends. She is reluctant to leave the necklace behind with the beasts, but Cyrus convinces her to run, for it is too late. They continue to trek through the forest when they come across a village setting off fireworks; this means that someone must have wished for them for the people of Wonderland are too poor to afford food, let alone fireworks. Knowing Will must be in the village, they decide to go there, but on the way Cyrus gives Alice the engagement ring he never got to give her and proposes; she delightfully accepts. With Anastasia having run off, Alice and Cyrus have trouble finding Will, but the Queen soon emerges with the bottle in tow, accidentally on purpose rubbing it so that she receives the wishes three. The four of them decide to leave Wonderland as soon as possible for Jafar can become unstoppable with the power of three genies, but Cyrus realizes that the other two genies that Jafar has prisoner are his brothers, and so the four of them decide to embark on yet another rescue mission.

Gallery
Gallery of photographic stills released to promote the character.