We’ve known about NBC’s Heroes: Reborn reboot for some time now, but we still don’t know a lot about what story arcs to expect, and how the miniseries will build on the landmark 2006 TV series. In fact, a recent Entertainment Weekly interview with creator Tim Kring only made us more cynically wonder at the real motivations behind reincarnating Heroes.
Despite the reboot premiering sometime next year according to plan, Kring was still pretty vague on details. “It takes place in a post-season 4 universe,” he said. “So it will tie into some of the ideas that were left dangling.”
And yet, it’ll also be treading new ground, through the introduction of an almost entirely new cast. Kring explained that they wanted to bring back a few of the core characters “really only to give a sense of continuity and a tether to the original world.” They’ve signed on Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman), the man with the horn-rimmed glasses, “because he was a character who had a spine through the series that allowed you to meet new characters.”
Knowing that key actors from the original series—Zachary Quinto, Ali Larter—couldn’t sign on because of busy schedules and the desire to not revisit these characters makes it easier to fathom why the showrunners are going with a character with the most ties to everyone. And yet, Kring doesn’t have anything else more specific to tease, saying that his attention is currently on a thriller series, Dig.
When Heroes premiered on NBC in 2006, it helped kickstart the notion of superhero shows on television. But eight years later, NBC has fallen behind networks like the CW, ABC, and FOX, which boast such series as (respectively) Arrow (soon to be joined by The Flash), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the forthcoming Gotham.
It’s interesting timing, is all we’re saying—especially when you consider quotes like this, where Kring explains that NBC pitched him:
To be honest, it wasn’t a pitch from me, it was a pitch from NBC to me. They saw the value in that franchise and brand and asked if I was interested in helming it again. And we had left the story in a place where we had more story to tell.
So given the opportunity, I had ideas of where I wanted the story to go originally when we were hoping for a fifth season and so when we were given the opportunity five years later, some of those same thoughts were there as to where this story goes. But five years had passed and I also had new ideas on how to reboot the brand in a way that gives people a whole fresh take on the series with a whole host of new characters but gives you that sense of you’re in that world of Heroes you’re familiar with.
We agree with Collider, that it sounds odd to hear creators refer to their work as a “brand.” Then again, some of the best superhero stories do make room for young bucks to come up within the world. Maybe Heroes: Reborn can succeed in doing the same.