Christos Kalohoridis/NBC
Bob Greenblatt confirmed that there would not be another round of the Tim Kring drama.
NBC, for the second time, is bringing Heroes to an end.
Speaking with reporters after his time on stage Wednesday at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour, NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt confirmed that Heroes Reborn, the revival of the Tim Kring drama,will not be back for an additional season.
"That was always the plan, unless Tim woke up one day and said, 'Oh, I have another chapter to tell.' But I think we're coming to the end of the world, maybe. Stay tuned," Greenblatt said.
The news comes after Heroes Reborn — a follow-up to the four-season NBC drama that ran hot but burned out as quickly as it became a phenomenon — dwindled its viewership. The network, which brought back many of the stars from the original series, languished on Thursdays. The show's series finale will air Jan. 21.
The decision to end the franchise comes after Kring previously told THR that Reborn would be a closed-ended series — and he had multiple ideas for ways in which to continue with new stories.
"The premise of the show is elastic enough to reboot," Kring told THR in July. "It has a basic premise — there are an undetermined number of people waking up to the idea that they have these powers — and we can always start with people's origin stories. Plus the world always needs saving and that is a continual premise of the show. We've saved the world a few times, and the promise of Heroes is that it’s about ordinary people who come together to save world. So it feels like it can be rebooted, relaunched and recast as a franchise more than just an ongoing saga with the same characters."
Pressed by THR if Reborn would truly be the end of the franchise despite Kring's vocal declaration that he had other ideas for new short-run series, Greenblatt said that was news to him.
"He didn't say that to me, so I haven't heard that. As far as I know, there's no more incarnations of Heroes coming," Greenblatt said.
Heroes Reborn was one of many reboots and revivals to come in recent years as broadcast networks — as well as cablers and streaming services — look for proven IP in a bid to cut through the clutter and and recapture diehard fans of stories franchises. Fox next will revive The X-Files this month and Netflix has a follow-up to Full House coming soon, too, among others. For its part, NBC picked up a straight-to-series follow-up to Coach, but abandoned those plans after screening the pilot.
On the development side, CBS is looking at Nancy Drew and MacGuyver as the broadcast networks continue to mine their respective studios' film and TV libraries.
Television Critics Association Heroes Reborn NBC
