Heroes fans – rejoice! Just in case you’ve been living under a rock or have teleported into another dimension, listen up as I have some great news for you… Get ready for a brand-new NBC miniseries called Heroes: Reborn!
Oh-yes, it’s that time again to obsess over another group of seemingly ordinary people who, in turn, actually possess extraordinary abilities. With the superhero genre continuously growing, it doesn’t shock that NBC wishes to give the X-men TV series-feel of Heroesanother chance.
Back when Heroes was first launched, it had astonishing feed-back, but ratings soon plummeted after its debut season in 2006. Unfortunately, ratings continued to decline which led to the series being cancelled after its fourth season.
Now, the writers have a second chance to turn things around for the franchise. Thus, leaving the reboot with incredibly high expectations to deliver much greatness – think the good old Heroes season 1 days and you’re about there! If you didn’t watch the cult-following Heroes series, then don’t sweat it.
The creator, Tim Kring, has revealed that new intriguing story-lines and characters will be introduced which will allow a new fanbase to emerge and grow.
So what do we know so far? The reboot will be a 13-episode event series with a stand-alone concept – instead of carrying on directly from the previous Heroes series. Although, the writers haven’t ruled out the idea of bringing back previous characters along the way – just to tie in the original story. One of which, will be the character of Noah Bennett (Jack Coleman), aka ‘the man with the horn-rimmed glasses’ (HRG), but he won’t be taking centre stage. Unfortunately for those die-hard Heroes fans, a few previous cast members have spoken out about the miniseries: Zachary Quinto, Milo Ventimiglia, and Ali Larter have all publicly stated that, sadly, they will not be making guest-appearances.
Who is taking centre stage? The new star of the show will be portrayed by Chuck actor, Zachary Levi. As stated before, information is incredibly scarce, leaving us in the dark as to what his character’s name, age, allegiance, and power will be. What we can gather from the secrecy is that his unidentified character will be the ‘main key’ in linking the mini-series together.
Also, during one of the NFL Super Bowl XLIX ad breaks, a teaser trailer was dropped which hinted towards which direction Zachary’s character was heading towards. It seems that he may not be the golden boy that Heroes (Season 1) Peter Petrelli was – Sylar 2.0 perhaps? I think if that is the case, then the miniseries may be taking tips from TV series like Dexter (where the main protagonist is the ‘villain’ of the show), to take the audience through a very different, perhaps more intriguing, perspective. This would especially pull away from the Heroes 2006 series where it focused on the good prevailing. Yes, I’m talking about the ‘save the cheerleader, save the world’ storyline.
Prior to the reboot airing, the audience will be treated to a webseries – serving as a prequel to the miniseries. Keeping the title straight to the point, it will be named Heroes Reborn: Digital Series. Seems like a lot of thought went into it, right? However, the online storytelling concept itself is actually original for the NBC network.
No doubt, if ratings excel, it could possibly lead to another one being created in the future, to give further backstory on the new characters and their lives. Yet again, no air date has been released but NBC has already stated that the digital series will be available on NBC.com, Hulu, and video-on-demand.
Thus, the webseries will cross-link with Heroes: Reborn to reignite interest and take the Heroes phenomenon to a whole new level!
