The long anticipated Heroes revival, Heroes Reborn will hit the airwaves in a few weeks. In the summer NBC released a web series Heroes: Dark Matters as a way to reintroduce us to the Heroes universe and unveil a new generation.
The new series has been several years in the making and whilst I’ve been looking forward to it, I can’t help but approach with caution based on the last few seasons of the original show.
When Heroes first aired back in 2006, its premise was like a breath of fresh air to nerds and non-herds alike. It promised to show us ordinary people who discover extraordinary super powers after a solar eclipse sets them off. Fans were roped in by its comic book style storylines. The season 1 catchphrase “save the cheerleader, save the world,” brilliantly ramped up the threat level and captured the imagination.
The series was originally designed to have an ever-changing cast but due to the popularity of the season 1 cast, creator and executive producer Tim Kring changed his plans and brought make most of the original cast for season 2.
For me this is where things started to break. The showrunners overindulged fans by trying to come up with new ways to keep fan favourites in major plotlines; the stories became convoluted and built a mythology that barely made sense. As much as I had grown fond of the season 1 cast, there mission was over as far as I was concerned. They saved the cheerleader, time to move on! Nevertheless, I stuck with the series until the bitter end.
New heroes and villains
Heroes Reborn promises a new cast of super powered people who take on the ultimate struggle between those with extraordinary abilities and those with nefarious motives to hunt and harness their powers.
The 13-part mini-series is set several years after the end of the original series which means the circus really did come to town (what a crap storyline that was) and Clare Bennett really did announce to the world that super powered people exist. The world is now divided between those with powers and those without.
Events take place one year after a terrorist attack in Odessa, Texas, which destroyed the city. The government blamed those with extraordinary abilities, which they call Evos, short for Evolved Humans. Outcast and hunted Evos must live in hiding.
Zachary Levi (Chuck, Thor: The Dark World) and Judi Shekoni play Luke and Joanne Collins, a couple who lost their son in the attack. Looking for revenge they become vigilante hunters of Evos.
New characters include Malina (Danika Yarosh), described as a “brave and courageous girl” who is “destined for greatness”. Quentin Frady (Henry Zebrowski), a conspiracy theorist who has uncovered the truth behind Odessa and Erica (Rya Kihlstedt ), the morally dubious head of tech conglomerate Renautas .
The new heroes will cross paths with some of the old cast: Remember little Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabey)? Well he’ll be back and he’s all grown up.
Noah Bennett (Jack Coleman), Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), The Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis) Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) and Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose) will also be returning.
The news that Syler will not be returning for the reboot is a welcome relief. This character was far too powerful and his kryptonite was a poke in the back of the head with a sharp implement. Um, first you had to get to the back of his head and with all his collected powers; he wasn’t easy to take down one-on-one.
Lets hope that the new batch of heroes and villains have just enough powers to make them awesome but not too much to make them ridiculous.
A special two-hour episode of Heroes Reborn will premier on NBC on 24 September, there is no airdate for the UK at the time of writing. Check out the motion posters whilst you wait.
Comic book superheroes saturation
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