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Returning to NBC five years after its untimely cancellation, Heroes Reborn picks up the story x-number of years later with a (mostly) all-new cast. When Heroes first premiered its comic-book origins seemed like an oasis from the standard ‘Law and Order’ procedural cop-shows; but nowadays the super-hero genre has become the default, saturating every big network channel on pretty much every single night. How will this affect the newest incarnation of Heroes? With so many other superhero shows, how does Heroes: Reborn hope to stand out? Will it be any better than season four (and if we’re being honest -- season two & three)? At Comic Con, the cast and crew took to the stage to discuss the series and preview all new footage. For a recap, read below…

Panel Highlights

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    Image via NBC
    Creator/showrunner Tim Kring comes out on stage first, stating how he’s “overwhelmed by the massive crowd.” He continues – “Ten years ago we came out here and presented this little show at Comic Con and then it became a mass phenomenon.” He then addresses the white elephant in the room: “For people who grew tired of the [Heroes] and thought it faltered in later seasons… we’ve had a long rest and we’re ready to return… If you give Heroes: Reborn a chance, you will not be disappointed.”
  • Kring announces that they’re going to launch two video games concurrently with the new series. “One is a mobile tablet game; the other - a PC game.” These will bridge the gap between Heroes and Heroes: Reborn.
  • Kring also announced there will be six eBooks that tell the backstories of the new characters on the show. In addition there will be a digital online prequel Dark Matters set two years before the events of Heroes: Reborn that tells the tragic backstory of Henry Zebrowski new character Quentin Frady.
  • Greg Grunberg – Matt Parkman himself – comes out on stage to moderate a panel with Kring and the rest of the cast. Grunberg jokes, “I remember when we here the first time… Tim, you didn’t even have a twitter account…”
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    Image via NBC
    Per Grunberg: Heroes: Reborn is “Heroes on steroids.”

  • How do you compete with the all the other superhero shows currently on air? Per Kring: “The show is always about the characters. Not about the superpowers; but how [characters] deal with their abilities.” He continued – “Things have gotten a lot easier special effects wise.” Now people do special effects on their laptops on set that used to take three weeks...
  • Heroes: Reborn, as opposed to Heroes (which had to double exotic locales in LA) is shot on location – in Tokyo, Iceland, LA…
  • The show picks up five years after the fourth season. The fourth season ended with Claire exposing her powers to world and now everyone knows about them. “That may not be a good thing,” Kring teased.
  • Zachary Levi on how his character Luke differs from Chuck: “Chuck never killed anyone and never wanted to. He was very altruistic … Luke Collins though believes in a Glock.” Luke has gone down a dark path and is in a very twisted relationship with his wife, Levi revealed.  Something tragic happened in Luke’s past to make him this way.
  • Jack Coleman on putting the glasses back on for HRG: “It’s been amazing. The first time I put them back on was for that Super bowl ad... I almost felt like an imposter but it came back quickly afterwards… I just needed my gun.”
  • The new cast revealed who their characters are on the upcoming season. Ryan Guzman plays Carlos, “an army vet with a troubled past who takes a chance towards redemption…” Robbie Kay plays Tommy “your typical high-schoooler but with a massive secret… [He has] the power, the ability to make other people disappear.” Gatlin Green plays Emily “the sweet girl next door… who finds out Tommy’s big secret and then gets tossed into the fray as he gets [in trouble].” Danika Yarosh plays Malina, “a bold and mysterious teenage girl… She’s been told she was going to do great things so she has spent her entire life training to be ‘great’.”
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    Image via NBC
    Masi Oka is ecstatic to finally finish up the series. “We left it unfinished,” he stated, “So now there’s an opportunity to wrap thing up for the fans.”
  • Jack Coleman revealed that when the new series begins “HRG is trying to live quiet life in suburbia…” He elaborated, “There are certain elements of [HRG’s] memory that aren’t intact [anymore].” The crux of his storyline will be trying to piece together his memories and what’s happened to him.

Audience Q&A

  • Who could they get to come back from the original cast for the new season/who couldn’t they get? Kring stated it “wasn’t a matter of who we could get and who we couldn’t get. We just looked at story organically and got who we needed.” Kring stated that the lynchpin of the former cast was always Jack Coleman – HRG. “He’s the hub for the show.”
  • How similar will Heroes: Reborn be to previous seasons? Kring stated that now that the world knows about people with abilities, the story changes considerably. Now if you were to wake up with a power, it would be a bad thing because you know you’re going to be persecuted and in danger. This “raises the stakes tremendously.”
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    What happened to the characters that aren’t on this new series (i.e. Claire Bennet, Sylar, etc.…)? There’s a big five-year gap that the games and the books will dole out. This will reveal what happens to characters not necessarily on the new show. Kring did state though “by the time you watch the finale of the new series – you will have a big chunk of that info answered.”
  • The cast went around the room, revealing what their superhero name would be. Masi Oka – “Bad Motherfucking Cronos”; Rya Kihlstedt – “Super Vagina”; Robbie Kay – “The Magician”; Ryan Guzman – “El Grande”; Zachary Levi – “I would call myself Benedict Cumberbatch.”

Footage

The official trailer debuted at Comic-Con which you can check out here.

In addition, Tim Kring premiered an exclusive clip from the series. It opens in a parking lot. Mohinder has been captured, some device wrapped around him, suppressing his powers. New villain Harris (Cle Bennett) looms over Mohinder, foot pressed to his chest. All of the sudden Hiro (Masi Oka) enters, unleashing two swords. Masi attacks Harris, chopping off his arms and stabbing him through the chest with both swords. He releases Mohinder, everything now seemingly safe. They both look up to see that Harris has duplicated himself into five different versions and now surrounds the duo. Cut to black. It was a fun little clip – more bloody and violent that I remember Heroes being; but a promising start to the once popular show.

Heroes: Reborn premieres on NBC on September 24th. Click here to catch up on all of our Comic-Con 2015 coverage.

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Image via NBC