Surely they can find another cheerleader to save. Deadline reports that—years and years after the fact—Heroes may get a third chance at life. The original Heroes, created by Tim Kring, ran from 2006-2010, and is infamous in my house for its very awkward product placement (“Nissan Versa!”). A limited sequel series, Heroes Reborn, was set years after the original, and ran for a single season.
The original run of Heroes was charming, for a time, but went off the rails fairly quickly. An entry into the “ordinary people get superpowers” category, it tried not to be the X-Men, but did not always distinguish itself. It did have a generally quite appealing cast, including Hayden Panettiere (as the superpowered cheerleader), Milo Ventimiglia, Masi Oka, Zachary Quinto, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Ali Larter, Adrian Pasdar, Jack Coleman, and Greg Grunberg. Some of these people went on to greater fame (hello, Spock!) and some did not. The show’s writing staff also includes a few familiar names: Bryan Fuller (Hannibal), Jesse Alexander (also Hannibal), Aron Eli Coleite (The Spiderwick Chronicles), comics writer Jeph Loeb, Michael Green (Blue Eye Samurai), and Misha Green (Lovecraft Country).
The new series will be called Heroes: Eclipsed, and Deadline says it “is set years after the events of the original series as new evos are being awakened and discovering powers that will change their lives. Featuring familiar villains and new enemies who once again will be attempting to suppress this next step in human evolution, it will be up to this new group of heroes to save the world.”
No casting has been announced. Kring is writing the series, and executive producing it. Deadline says that it has been pitched to NBC, the original show’s network, as well as streamers—but no one has bitten. Yet.
