'Heroes' is hitting the road

June 21, 04:51 PM

We can now answer, more or less definitively, one of the burning questions about the finale of Heroes in May. To wit: Why the heck couldn't Peter fly away by himself?

"Here's how it was explained to me," says Adrian Pasdar, who plays' Peter's (Milo Ventimiglia) brother Nathan and who ferried him to the sky to explode. "He was unstable, unable to control his powers. And if he did fly off he wouldn't have been able to control" any of the other powers he'd absorbed, most pertinently the explodability Peter got from Ted Sprague.

One gets the sense the actors have been asked this question a couple times. Jack "HRG" Coleman, standing next to Pasdar at a press event on the Heroes soundstage Thursday, notes that the answer was in the show: "There was a line where he actually said, 'I can't do anything.'"

(The full line, which Peter says to Nathan shortly after he flies into Kirby Plaza, is "I took his power. I can't control it. I can't do anything.")

Pasdar, Coleman and most of their fellow castmates gathered to announce a "Heroes World Tour" that will coincide with the season one DVD launch and the show's rollout in a number of other countries. Members of the cast will head out to New York, London, Paris, Munich, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore to promote the show and greet fans overseas; to kick things off, creator Tim Kring used Hiro's (Masi Oka) sword to cut into a giant, globe-shaped cake.

The tour is designed in part to introduce the show to places where it hasn't debuted yet, but according to cast member Greg Grunberg, that won't be an issue in a number of places.

"I took my wife to Paris this summer, and it hadn't premiered on TV in Paris yet, but people were stopping me all over the place because they watched it on the Internet," says Grunberg, who plays Matt Parkman. "That's how obsessed they are."

Heroes fans in this country tend to be a little obsessed too, and so I set out in search of tidbits for season two. The show has been back in production for all of two days, so there's not much to tell yet. But we can offer up the following:

With the exception of the Hiro storyline, season two will pick up four months after the finale. Kring was loath to say who's alive and who's not, but it's probably a safe bet that most of the characters survived. (Incidentally, if Peter was able to put himself back together after the explosion, it looks like he decided to get a haircut too -- Ventimiglia's familiar floppy forelock was MIA Thursday.) As for Hiro, his story "is the only one that picks up immediately. He's existing in a time frame outside of the rest of the characters."
Hayden Panettiere has been the busiest actor in the first two days of shooting, filming scenes from, as she describes it, "her new life." That will eventually include a boyfriend (new recurring player Nick D'Agosto) -- "right now he's an acquaintance," she says -- and a couple of new cheerleader frenemies (Lyndsy Fonseca and Dianna Agron).
The show has cast eight new regular or recurring actors, expanding what was already a pretty good-sized cast. Kring says he and his fellow writers have a decent handle on how they'll weave the newcomers into the story, but they don't feel obligated to feature everyone in every episode for season two. "We'll be able to pull back and ebb and flow, let certain characters come to the surface for an episode and then sit out an episode," he says.

That could mean more episodes like last season's "Company Man," which delved deeply into HRG's history. "The idea of being able to focus on a couple of characters is something we learned last year was a valuable thing to do, but we had to earn enough interest in those characters to be able to focus on them," Kring says.
Kring cops to "subterfuge" in the casting of blond-haired, blue-eyed former Alias star David Anders as samurai warrior Takezo Kensei in the Hiro-in-the-past storyline. "Like everything on Heroes, nothing is quite what it seems to be," he allows. "It becomes a huge part of the story, the reveal of who this character really is."
This year's "Generations" theme will include more information on Hiro's dad (George Takei), Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose) and some of the other older characters. "All these characters set up the idea that there was another generation that had secrets of its own," Kring says. "This season ... we're going to talk about the sins of the parents being visited on the children."

Heroes will be back in September, but until then feel free to chew on these morsels in the comments.

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Comments (20)

Comments

I loved the season finale, but I was surprised that so many other fans complained about Peter not being able to fly away by himself. I just figured that he couldn't control his other powers because he was about to explode! At least the producers have given us the explanation before the second season starts.

I think the 'Heroes World Tour' is such a great marketing campaign, especially since their cast is so diverse racially and ethnically. It's about time that US prime time shows had some likable Asian characters, not just the typical Asian villains (like the Chinese terrorists on '24').

I really liked the 'Company Man' episode, which gave us insight to HRG's past. However, I don't want the writers to focus a lot of time on flashback episodes. That would be like stepping too much into 'Lost's' territory.

Paige | Jun 22, 2007 7:58:30 AM | #

God forbid they should step into Lost territory - the best show on television. Cool how Lost invented flashbacks, huh?

mark | Jun 22, 2007 9:26:39 AM | #

The main problem with the season finale, and the writers obviously figured this out...and had to make the character disappear for a while...was that the haitian could have stopped the bomb. HRG should have known this. All they needed to do was find the haitian and have him stop the bomb from going off. He could have just stood there.

Also...Hiro appears, shouts sylar, sylar turns around and shouts, "You!", and then he watches as Hiro runs towards him for about 2 seconds and he just stand there and dies. That was another fluke of the finale.

Lastly...with all this time travel, and future hiro who mastered it, and Peter in the future who mastered it...why didn't they just go back in time and kill sylar when he was a kid. When Peter fights sylar in the infamous future epside...why didn't he just stop time and kill him? Kring has made a good show...but these little annoyances i speak of...will add up...and eventually start upsetting people. When you make a show with powers...you have to make sure that there aren't continuity errors.

Chase | Jun 22, 2007 10:06:35 AM | #

i like the finale a lot and i just figured that Peter couldn't do more than one power at a time since he never has shown the ability to use more than one before. I thought for sure that Sulu was going to be Kensei. Can't wait to see it come back!

steve | Jun 22, 2007 10:46:30 AM | #

Going back into time to kill Sylar as a kid would be a cool story. How many times has the same question been asked about killing Hitler? Maybe if they do, it somehow shapes Gabe's psyche to make him sociopathic?

Keiros | Jun 22, 2007 12:30:40 PM | #

Lost did not invent flashbacks. There were flashbacks in shows in the 1990's like Bablyon 5.

Heroes is the best show to air since B5. I love how it is going.

Randy | Jun 22, 2007 12:45:20 PM | #

I will admit to not having LOVED the finale, but only because visually and script wise I expected it to much more exciting.
As far as the "inconsistencies" go...

1.I assumed, basically, from Peter's saying so that he was unable to control Ted's power and therefore couldn't fly.

2. One of the few things I did really enjoy, however, was the moment when Hiro killed Sylar. (For me, it was Hiro's stopping time that kept Sylar from defending himself. Visually, I thought that it showed the struggle between their respective powers at work. Sylar clearly being the only thing in shot capable of being in "stopped time" with Hiro, but not being able to move as fast. Reminiscent of the effect used when Hiro tries to kill Sylar the first time in Isaac's studio, but with a different outcome.)

And finally...
3. As far as killing Sylar as a kid is concerned I think one of the best things this show ever did was in Hiro's storyline with Charlie, the waitress. It's the first time we're shown Hiro's ability to exist outside the time-line of the others for an extended period of time (Which sets up a lot of next season apparently) and the moral in the end is..when it comes to the bigger matters of life and death, there's nothing you can do in the past,to stop something from happening in the future.

David | Jun 22, 2007 1:06:06 PM | #

My theory was that he could only control one power at a time, since he was blowing up he couldn't access his other powers.

Sam | Jun 22, 2007 1:31:44 PM | #

Mark, I did not mean to imply that there was anything wrong with using some elements from 'Lost'. I was trying to say that Heroes has its own style (more plot-driven), while Lost's ENTIRE structure depends on a character's flashback. I enjoy watching BOTH shows for their unique styles. :-)

And by the way, Lost's producers did not 'invent' the flashback as a storytelling device. One could go as far back as 'Citizen Kane' (1941) and even 'Rashomon' (1950) for some early examples of utilizing flashbacks within a larger narrative.

And David, you made a great point about Hiro not being able to stop Sylar by just going back in time and killing him as a child. Hiro tried to save Charlie, but she ended up dying anyway. Time travel is probably the most confusing super power to have! ;-)

Paige | Jun 22, 2007 2:28:15 PM | #

Heroes sucks! Horrible season 1. A Waste of time!!

Henrys | Jun 22, 2007 5:21:00 PM | #

Heroes sucks! Horrible season 1. A Waste of time!! The 2 season will be the same??

Henrys | Jun 22, 2007 5:21:15 PM | #

So dont watch it, and dont waste our time...

Keiros | Jun 22, 2007 7:35:46 PM | #

i agree with keiros,why watch if you don't like.heroes is the best dam show on tv(imo) it's nice to watch a show about heroes not knowing what the future holds for them.keep up the good work guys.

heavenly | Jun 23, 2007 6:51:24 AM | #

I have a theroy that when season 2 picks up that the child Molly will be living with Nikki and her son. I think this because in the season finale when Peter was about to go and blow up while D.L. was lying down hurt Nikki was next to him holding on to Molly and her son, in my eyes trying to protect them. Wouldn't that make sense, why else would she be with them?

Kate | Jun 23, 2007 9:51:30 AM | #

Actually, I'm hoping we see very little of Molly next season. She's got a cool power but how many storylines could actually be built around it?

If anything, I hope she's on the show only once and awhile.

Bud Gott | Jun 23, 2007 3:45:19 PM | #

You guys are right this is the best damn show on tv! And I cant wait to see it this fall!!!!!!!

Darla | Jun 23, 2007 7:14:03 PM | #

"haitian could have stopped the bomb. HRG should have known this."

It didn't look like he was in touch with the Haitian at that point -- the latter was working for Mama Petrelli. Because of that, I don't think he planned to interfere with the bomb going off anyway. Myabe we'll find out later what he was doing, since he was rather conspicuously absent even from their attempts to get Claire out of town.

Dana | Jun 24, 2007 8:19:22 PM | #

The Haitian dampens mental powers only, not physical powers. Radioactivity is a physical power, the Haitian couldn't stop it.

Derrida | Jun 24, 2007 11:38:39 PM | #

why do they have a white guy playing "samurai warrior Takezo Kensei" i liked the actor in his other work but would rather see more non white roles since this show is all about diversity I’m sure the twist has too do with exploring the world and ending in japan but again why does he have too be white why not Moore, Arab, Persian or Indian (American or non) or here’s a thought Asian!! and don't give me crap about it was open call and he was best one there thats BS

bigfan | Jun 25, 2007 11:28:04 PM | #

well... u guys r a bunch of bored people...
Can't wait 2cu all get up and do something better than chatting...
What will our future be with bunch of you just watch tv, complaints and sitting infront of PC, wasting your time...
Do your house works, chores, build a goal/dreams, retired early and travel the world, help others, do volunteer works, do charities works, etc. Make a better reality world. There are so many things you can do out there..
Have u eaten healthy, Have u sleep enough, ru getting overweight, is ur family happy and looked after ??? when was the last time u get together with your parents, siblings, spouse, children and tell them that u love them ?
Wake up guys....

wakeupcall2u | Jun 27, 2007 1:28:37 AM | #