Heroes

Show Details

Heroes is an American science fiction serial drama television series created by Tim Kring, which premiered on NBC on September 25, 2006. The series tells the stories of ordinary individuals who discover that they have superhuman abilities, and also explores how these people adapt to the changes these abilities bring, and their roles in preventing catastrophes and saving humanity. The series emulates the aesthetic style and storytelling of American comic books, using short, multi-episode story arcs that build upon a larger, more encompassing arc. Kring and the writers have an idea of where the series is heading for the first five seasons. The series is produced by Universal Media Studios in association with Tailwind Productions, and it is filmed primarily in Los Angeles, California. The executive producers are Allan Arkush, Dennis Hammer, Greg Beeman and Tim Kring.

The critically acclaimed first season's run of 23 episodes garnered an average of 14.3 million viewers in the United States, receiving the highest rating for any NBC drama premiere in five years. The second season of Heroes attracted an average of 13.1 million viewers in the United States. The second season was NBC's top series in adults 18-49, the top Monday series on any network in adults 18–49, and the top scripted series on any network in adults 18-34. 24 episodes were ordered for the second season, but only eleven episodes were broadcast, due to the 100-day strike by the Writers Guild of America. The dispute led to the initial postponement and eventual cancellation of a six episode spin-off titled Heroes: Origins. Heroes will return with its third season on September 22, 2008.

A digital-internet extension of the series, Heroes 360 Experience, was created to explore the Heroes universe and provides insight into the show's mythology. It was rebranded as Heroes Evolutions at the beginning of the second season. Heroes Evolutions also includes graphic novels, which have been released every Tuesday since September 25, 2006, and were published by WildStorm Comics on November 7, 2007. Other official Heroes media include magazines, action figures, tie-in and interactive websites, a mobile game, a novel, clothing and other merchandise. NBC Universal announced on April 2, 2008, that NBC Digital Entertainment would release a series on online content for the summer and fall of 2008, including more original web content, wireless iTV interactivity, graphic novels available for mobile viewing and webisodes.

Heroes has garnered a number of awards and nominations. On July 19, 2007 Heroes was nominated in eight categories at the 2007 Primetime Emmy awards, including Outstanding Drama Series and was also nominated for Best Television Series-Drama at the 2007 Golden Globes. The series won a People's Choice Award in 2007 in the category of Best New Drama, and was named Program of the Year in 2007 by the Television Critics Association and Best International Program at the 2008 Bafta Awards. The series has also been nominated for an NAACP Image Award, a WGA Award, and a Satellite Award.

Synopsis

List of Heroes episodes

The plot of Heroes is designed to be similar to the stories of comic books with small story arcs built into the series' overall large story arc plot. Each season of Heroes is designed to involve ordinary people who discover extraordinary powers, and how these abilities take effect in the character's lives. Season 2 was originally going to comprise three volumes, however due to the writer's strike, the season was redesigned to only encompass one volume called "Generations". Originally Volume 3 was going to be called "Exodus", and Volume 4 was going to be called "Villains." As a result of the writers' strike, Volume 3 was changed to "Villains" and moved into season three. The "Exodus" story arc, which was originally designed to be a story arc reflecting the effects of the release of strain 138 of the Shanti virus, was canceled. Scenes from the volume two finale "Powerless", were reshot to reflect the cancellation of the "Exodus" volume, and to tie-up all the loose plot storylines of "Generations."

Season One

The series begins as a seemingly ordinary group of people gradually become aware that they have special abilities. Events illustrate their reactions to these powers, and how the discovery affects their personal and professional lives. At the same time, several ordinary individuals are investigating the origins and extent of these abilities. Mohinder Suresh, a geneticist, continues his late father's research into the biological source of the change, while Noah Bennet represents a secret organization known only as the "Company".

While coping, each of the characters is drawn — willingly or not — into the Company's conspiracy to control superpowered people, and into a race to stop an explosion from destroying New York City, which would kill millions of its inhabitants. Throughout the season, the predatory stalkings of the serial killer Sylar and continued manipulations from casino-owner and mobster Mr. Linderman affect the characters directly and indirectly. Several characters' individual stories culminated in a climactic meeting of the characters at Kirby Plaza in New York. These stories included Peter Petrelli's abilities, Nathan's campaign for Congress, Claire Bennet's search for her biological parents, Hiro Nakamura's adventurous journeys, Niki Sanders' multiple personalities, and Isaac Mendez's precognitive visions.

Season Two

Season two began in the United States and Canada on September 24, 2007 and featured only 11 out of the planned 24 episodes, due to the WGA writers' strike. The show aired on Mondays at 9:00pm and consisted of the second volume in the series, titled "Generations", taking place during March 2007. Season two ended with its finale on December 3, 2007. The second season began in the UK on BBC2 on 24 April 2008 at 9:00PM.

The second season begins four months after the events of Kirby Plaza. Peter Petrelli, Matt Parkman, Nathan Petrelli, and Sylar have all survived the events of the season one finale, and are trying to return to ordinary lives despite their extraordinary abilities, with the exception of Sylar, who is on a quest to regain the use of his abilities. The main plot arc of "Generations" deals with the Company and its research on the Shanti virus. This research is explored through the Company's founders, whose identities are revealed, as well as through the effects of various strains of the virus on The Haitian, Niki Sanders, Sylar, and others. An amnesiac Peter Petrelli observes the potential devastation of the virus in a future New York City. The "heroes" ultimately come together in an attempt to stop the release of a deadly strain of the virus and avert a global pandemic.

Interwoven with the main plot are several secondary plots. These include Nathan Petrelli's recovery following the events at Kirby Plaza; the journey of new characters Maya and Alejandro from Honduras to the United States, and their interaction with a powerless Sylar; Claire and Noah Bennet and their family adapting to a new life in southern California; Claire's relationship with her boyfriend West; Monica Dawson discovering her powers in New Orleans, with the help of her cousin Micah; Matt Parkman's reunion with his estranged father, leading to discovery of new abilities; the Company's manipulation of Mohinder Suresh; Ando Masahashi trying to piece together what happened to Hiro Nakamura; and Hiro's journey to Feudal Japan, where he meets his childhood hero, Takezo Kensei.

Season Three

Season three will open with a three-hour episode, set to air Monday, September 22, 2008. The first-hour will be a clip show of the past two seasons; the final two-hours will be the Heroes season premiere and the opening of the third volume, "Villains". "Villains" was originally designed to be included within the second season, however, due to the writers' strike, the volume was carried over into season three. The lead-in to "Villains" featured a scene with Sylar, which was shown as the final scene of the "Generations" finale. Throughout Volume Two, Sylar's powers were suppressed by the Shanti virus. After using a cure, procured by Mohinder Suresh, he regained his abilities, delivering the first lines of Volume Three, "Villains": "I'm back." Tim Kring has claimed that the new volume will bring a cadre of villains to the show; hence the title. On December 5, 2007 at the Jules Verne Film Festival Adventure, Tim Kring showed a video-preview of volume three. According to an interview with Milo Ventimiglia on BBC Radio 1, filming for season three began on May 1, 2008 and the "Save the Cheerleader Save the World" mantra will be a central part of the season three plot. On May 9, 2008 a season three promo clip was released with hints at possible "inner villains" within the heroes. The promo stated, "In every hero there could be a villain," before plastering the words "hero" and "villain" over the face of every major character. The characters Nathan and Niki, whose fates were unclear at the end of the second season, were featured in the promo.

Cast and characters

Originally, Kring designed the series to have an ever-shifting cast. However, his motivation changed when he realized how big the original cast hit with audiences; therefore he brought back most of the first season cast for the second season, with a few additions who received a star billing. In its first season, the show features an ensemble cast of twelve main characters making it the third largest cast in American primetime television behind Desperate Housewives and Lost. Although NBC's first season cast page lists only ten characters, Leonard Roberts (D.L. Hawkins), who first appeared in the series' fifth episode, was an additional member of the original full-time cast. In episode eleven of the first season, Jack Coleman (Noah Bennet) was upgraded from a recurring role to become the twelfth full-time cast member.

Zachary Quinto and James Kyson Lee, who were recurring cast members in the first season, joined the main cast for the second season. They were joined by new cast members David Anders, Kristen Bell, Dana Davis and Dania Ramírez. Anders was originally cast for a recurring role, and was upgraded to a series regular before the season began. He was listed as a guest star until the fifth episode of season two, when he was then listed as a main cast member. At the start of season two Santiago Cabrera, Tawny Cypress, and Leonard Roberts were no longer listed as part of the main cast, although Leonard Roberts' character appeared in season two as a guest starring role. The series also features many guest and recurring characters, including friends and family of the main cast, criminals and villains, and other individuals with superhuman abilities.

Casting

Tim Kring describes the casting process as an "incredibly simple and easy process." Every actor and actress that production wanted to cast for the show came in and read for their respective parts. When Jason La Padura, the casting director for Heroes, is casting for a new character for the show -major or minor- his company puts out a script breakdown, which is an analysis of a screenplay or script, which includes several production elements for the potential actors. Padura's company then receives resumes and photos and looks for potential actors to cast. When it comes to guest stars, Padura states, "we need to really be able to see what the people have done, what they're about, we pay a lot of attention to people's training, their previous credits. La Padura says that casting co-stars is an easier process, and can be done through an online service used by casting directors. When it comes to well-known actors, Padura submits their names, and if production are interested, they may offer a role that was already planned or write-in a new role for that actor.

Sendhil Ramamurthy's character of Mohinder Suresh was one of only a few characters that was changed based on casting. Suresh was originally designed to be a 55-year old professor, however, due to Ramamurthy's audition, the part was rewritten and made younger to fit him.

Hayden Panettiere was cast by Marc Hirschfeld, executive vice president of casting for NBC Universal Television. Hirschfeld explained that when they were trying to decide who the cheerleader should be, he literally picked up the phone and said to the producers, "You got to meet Hayden Panettiere." Dania Ramirez was cast on the series based on her work on The Sopranos. She was notified by Kring that he was creating a Latin character and wanted her to come and test. Ramirez was the only actress called in to test for the role. Kristen Bell was first approached about being cast in July 2007, during a train ride back from the San Diego Comic Con with Heroes actors Zachary Quinto and Masi Oka, and writers from the series. The writers had mentioned that if Bell "ever want[ed] to come on Heroes, give us [writers] a call", to which Bell said she would love to. Bell had several casting options, including ABC's Lost, however it was officially announced that she was cast in August 2007. David Anders auditioned for the role of Takezo Kensei. He read his scenes, impersonating Peter O'Toole, in which the producers responded by asking him to tone down the impression on his second audition. He was contacted two weeks later and given the part. Anders was aware at the time that his role was a recurring role that had the possibility of being promoted to a main cast role, however, he did not find out until the filming of episode five that he would be portraying Monroe, and that his character would be moving into the present.

La Padura stated that the character of Peter Petrelli was the hardest to cast due to conflicts regarding the Petrelli brother's ages. La Padura states the Petrelli brothers were originally written to be twins, and it became obvious in the production process that in order to have correct dynamic between the two characters, Peter had to be the younger brother. Adrian Pasdar was cast first. Milo Ventimiglia's role as Peter was the last to be cast and the most difficult. Greg Grunberg originally auditioned for the role of one of the Petrelli brothers. It was not a fit for him, but the production liked him so much, they rewrote the role of Matt Parkman to fit him. Originally Parkman's character was to be much younger, and La Padura was looking to cast a Ryan Phillippe-type actor for the role.

Jack Coleman was originally cast to only be in the pilot, with an open-ended contract. The connection between the characters of Claire and Mr. Bennet, and Kring's approval of Coleman's performance led to him being upgraded to a recurring character, before being promoted to the main cast roster. Dana Davis received the Heroes script during the 2007 pilot season. She auditioned once for the role and was cast.

La Padura also states that Masi Oka was the easiest actor to cast although casting the character was difficult due to a small pool of Japanese-speaking actors. Masi walked in the door and production knew he was "terrific" and "ideal" for the role. Ali Larter was cast for the show after reading several pilots during the 2006 pilot season. She auditioned for the role and was brought in a second and third time to meet with the studio and network respectively before being officially cast. Tawny Cypress also auditioned for the role of Niki, but was not awarded the part. Instead, Kring rewrote the role of Stella for her and renamed the character Simone Deveaux. Zachary Quinto auditioned for the role of Sylar, during the time when the series was currently airing. Tim Kring was not present at his first audition, but after a five day process, Quinto was awarded the role. Santiago Cabrera was cast through an interview process. When he auditioned for the production team, he went all out, doing the scene from the pilot when Isaac was under the influence of heroin. After the scene, the producers asked, "Well thank you very much for that. Maybe you would try it now not so on the effects of drugs." He eventually landed the role. Leonard Roberts was awarded the role of D.L. Hawkins, after he beat out Jimmy Jean-Louis (The Haitian), who auditioned for the same part three times. The part of the Haitian was rewritten for Louis. The original concept for the Haitian was to be a character from New Zealand, who would have been called "The Kiwi."

It was announced on May 9, 2008 that Brea Grant, former cast member of NBC's Friday Night Lights, has been cast as Daphne for season three. Daphne, who calls herself "Speedster", is a villain with the ability of supersonic speed and will be Hiro's nemesis. Grant told the Associated Press, "I'm stealing a secret that's been kept in Hiro's family for a long time that he's just now found. He stops time right as I grab it, but in that second it took him to grab it, I almost make it out of the office."