Christos Kalohoridis/NBC
A darker world and new technologies feature prominently in NBC's upcoming follow-up series, the cast and creator Tim Kring tell THR at TIFF.
Forget about saving the cheerleader in order to save the world. As Heroes Reborn showrunner Tim Kring previously told The Hollywood Reporter, Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman) is back, but his daughter Claire (Hayden Panettiere) is dead. And that makes NBC's upcoming follow-up a darker, dimmer tale all about new heroes who are either trying to save the world in which they live -- or more importantly -- survive it.
THR caught up with Kring and the cast at the show's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival to get the scoop on what new (and returning) viewers to the franchise need to know about the upcoming 13-part miniseries.
This is a darker world
Claire exposing her powers at the end of the original series was supposed to give the impression of a cohesive world between everyday folk and “evos,” as the humans call the evolved. But when a terrorist attack during a human-evos event kills hundreds of people and a familiar face takes credit, all presence of peace is off.
“It’s five years later and it’s a very dark and different world for them now,” Coleman says. “It’s a dangerous time and place to be an evo. The stakes are higher.”
There’s a new dark organization in town
As in the original series, heroes are still going missing — only this time, Bennet isn’t behind their disappearances. With Primatech gone, there’s another big bad company snatching up the heroes in order to study (and potentially use) their powers. And that brings Bennet into contact with a man named Quentin (Henry Zebrowski), who quickly becomes his partner in crime.
“We’re not friends … I hassle him,” Zebrowski says. “He’s a very serious man that my character gets involved with. There’s this idea of a fantasy, where I get into the heart of a conspiracy and think I’m going to kick ass and really expose some people … and then you show up and it’s like, ‘Oh. These people are killers. I am not prepared.’ ”
Others are on the hunt
There’s a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to Luke Collins (Zachary Levi) and Joanne Collins (Judith Shekoni). The husband-and-wife duo are complex, to say the least, but they initially have some pretty dark driving forces behind their actions.
“I quite like to think of them as a mixture of Natural Born Killers and Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” Shekoni says. “What I really like about these characters is that there are some people who kill and there are no consequences. Here you see how their actions change them as the episodes go on. It’s a journey.”
There’s a luchador in town
As it was when the drama first launched, Heroes Reborn is still very much an international show. This time, that means incorporating a luchador storyline with several complex twists and turns.
“He’s one of a kind,” teases Ryan Guzman, whose Carlos Gutierrez character somehow comes into contact with the luchador. “Especially for the Latin community, the luchador is an embodiment of heritage and family. I love that we’re bringing the whole Latin culture into this new, crazy world of Heroes.”
New technology means an intense new storyline
One of the top-secret reveals from the first two hours of Reborn involves the incorporation of a new type of Heroes storytelling and hero. The result may be controversial with fans, but it’s something showrunner Kring is excited for audiences to see.
“Doing this five years ago was probably not doable on our budget and on our schedule,” he says. “When I talk about how so many things haven’t changed in making a show, that has been something the technology has allowed us to do.”
There are a whole bunch of original heroes returning — and more coming
The list of returning heroes includes such previously announced characters as Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg), Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), The Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis) and Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabey). At least one of those faces will appear in the two-hour premiere, with the promise of more to come.
“The returning characters came up in the story as the story was breaking in the writers’ room,” Kring says. “There were only a couple that we would have wanted to get that were unavailable because they were involved in other things.”
Social issues are at the forefront
As most shows involving heroes tend to do, Heroes Reborn continues to critique key social and economic issues of the world today while also developing character.
“Heroes has always been a bit of a mirror to what’s happening in the world,” Kring says. “There are environmental issues that we’re going to hit on, ideas about technology, about corporate greed and all of that.”
Canada plays a large role
With most of the heroes on the run from the top-secret company and hunters, Canada has evolved into a safe haven for the evos over the past five years. Of course, Canada also happens to be where the show is filmed.
“They have the tax credits that allow us to make the show cheaper,” Kring reveals. “That allows us to put more on the screen than we can in other places. Also, the show depicts various places around the world, and Toronto gives you all of these different looks and places. We’ve been here for six months and we’ve had all different sorts of weather as well, which is helping the creative feel of the global feel of the show.”
Heroes Reborn debuts Thursday, Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. on NBC. Are you excited for the next chapter? Sound off in the comments below.
Twitter: @amber_dowling
Heroes Reborn
