A sneak peek at 'Heroes' SPOILER ALERT! | In season two, show goes global with two timelines
August 19, 2007
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television Critic
If you don't want to read any spoilers about what's going to happen in "Heroes" this fall, you can stop reading now. Seriously, you have been warned.
I don't have all the answers, but according to what some cast members tell me -- plus what a few spoiler sites say online -- here's the gist of how season two begins:
"We're going to start with two separate timelines," Masi Oka (Hiro) tells me. "One timeline's going to start four months after the events [of the season one finale]. And the other timeline starts with Hiro 400 years in the past."
Hiro will begin where he ended last May -- in feudal Japan, land of swords and horses.
"As a kid" in Japan, Oka says, "you grow up with samurais and ninja stuff. ... American kids wish they could be like cowboys. We wish we could be like samurais and ninjas."
And so, according to other sources, Hiro will come in contact with his own hero, the legendary Kensei, but realizes Kensei isn't the super dude he thought he was. What's worse, the princess who was supposed to fall for Kensei might fall for Hiro. That would be big trouble for future events.
Oka beamed about the Japanese story line.
"Horseback riding is fantastic. It hurts your butt when you're starting. Whenever you're going really slow it's fine, but when they trot -- oh my God."
Also, George Takai will return as Hiro's dad, but Hiro's mother still isn't in the picture.
*******
Hiro's powerless buddy Ando (James Kyson Lee) will start off stuck in New York, at least for a while.
"I don't know if Ando's going to end up in feudal Japan with Hiro," Lee says. "I think that's what people hope for, to go on another crazy adventure."
*******
Both Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) will be back in some form, even though it appeared they both blew up in the sky at the end of season one.
This summer, Pasdar showed up for a TV critics convention wearing a huge beard. I told him it looked spectacular. He referred to it as "Grizzly Adams-y."
Pasdar refused to say what role he'll play this year. But Jack Coleman, who plays Claire's dad, Mr. Bennet, seemed to shoot down my theory that Nathan will be a ghostly Obi-Wan Kenobi.
"We don't know for sure he is alive," Coleman said of Nathan. "All I can tell you is the Nathan Petrelli character has not been -- how do I put this? -- in some way, the character will live on. ... His story line has not been buried."
Claire (Hayden Panettiere) moves away and gets a boyfriend (Nick D'Agosto) who has a superpower.
Somehow, villainous Sylar (Zachary Quinto) is not off the show, even though it looked like Hiro stabbed him to death and sent his blood spilling into a drain. Quinto is on the set. And Sylar's image is flashed in NBC promos.
So, did his drained blood escape alive and give Sylar a way to resurrect life? Or is some other character channeling his face? Dunno. Quinto was excellent last year, but if he didn't die, wasn't the suspense of season one irrelevant?
Several new super people are on their way. David Anders, who played Sark on "Alias," portrays a baddie. There will be an Irish mobster, and Dania Ramirez -- who played A.J.'s fiancee on "The Sopranos" -- will play Mia, a super person on the run from cops in Central America. She has a twin brother, Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz).
"I get to speak my native language, which is, you know, amazing on an English-speaking show," Ramirez says.
*******
Perhaps as a result of its international success, the locales will be even more worldly this season. In addition to Japan, heroes will show up in Mexico, Egypt, Haiti, England and Ukraine.
"We're global now," Lee says. "We're on five continents, and over 40 countries. That's insane."
Plus, the cast will go on a world tour starting Aug. 27 to promote season two and the Aug. 28 launch of the first season's DVD. (NBC is no longer showing the previous episodes online.)
"We'll stop production for a week. We'll be going all over the world, pretty much. I'll be going to New York City and Toronto," Lee says. "Some of the other cities include London, Paris, Munich, Hong Kong" and Singapore.
*******
A central element that will not change is any character can die at any moment, even if such a fate never seems to truly befall a major hero, like Claire, Hiro and Peter. Still, cast members pick up each new script with some anxiety.
"That will never go away," Coleman tells me. "That's the nature of our show. As Adrian said so perfectly, 'I thought I was signing up to do a show called "Heroes," it turned out I signed up to do a show called "Survivor." '
"You go episode to episode, and be grateful for every one you get."
delfman@suntimes.com
HEROIC EFFORTS
On the way to "Heroes" beginning its second season Sept. 24, cast members are hosting reruns of their favorite episodes at 8 p.m Mondays on WMAQ-Channel 5:
* MONDAY Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia host "Homecoming."
* Aug. 27 Masi Oka and James Kyson Lee host "Six Months Ago."
* Sept. 3 Jack Coleman and Greg Grunberg host "Company Man."
* Sept. 10 Sendhil Ramamurthy and Zachary Quinto host "Parasite."
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television Critic
If you don't want to read any spoilers about what's going to happen in "Heroes" this fall, you can stop reading now. Seriously, you have been warned.
I don't have all the answers, but according to what some cast members tell me -- plus what a few spoiler sites say online -- here's the gist of how season two begins:
"We're going to start with two separate timelines," Masi Oka (Hiro) tells me. "One timeline's going to start four months after the events [of the season one finale]. And the other timeline starts with Hiro 400 years in the past."
Hiro will begin where he ended last May -- in feudal Japan, land of swords and horses.
"As a kid" in Japan, Oka says, "you grow up with samurais and ninja stuff. ... American kids wish they could be like cowboys. We wish we could be like samurais and ninjas."
And so, according to other sources, Hiro will come in contact with his own hero, the legendary Kensei, but realizes Kensei isn't the super dude he thought he was. What's worse, the princess who was supposed to fall for Kensei might fall for Hiro. That would be big trouble for future events.
Oka beamed about the Japanese story line.
"Horseback riding is fantastic. It hurts your butt when you're starting. Whenever you're going really slow it's fine, but when they trot -- oh my God."
Also, George Takai will return as Hiro's dad, but Hiro's mother still isn't in the picture.
*******
Hiro's powerless buddy Ando (James Kyson Lee) will start off stuck in New York, at least for a while.
"I don't know if Ando's going to end up in feudal Japan with Hiro," Lee says. "I think that's what people hope for, to go on another crazy adventure."
*******
Both Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) will be back in some form, even though it appeared they both blew up in the sky at the end of season one.
This summer, Pasdar showed up for a TV critics convention wearing a huge beard. I told him it looked spectacular. He referred to it as "Grizzly Adams-y."
Pasdar refused to say what role he'll play this year. But Jack Coleman, who plays Claire's dad, Mr. Bennet, seemed to shoot down my theory that Nathan will be a ghostly Obi-Wan Kenobi.
"We don't know for sure he is alive," Coleman said of Nathan. "All I can tell you is the Nathan Petrelli character has not been -- how do I put this? -- in some way, the character will live on. ... His story line has not been buried."
Claire (Hayden Panettiere) moves away and gets a boyfriend (Nick D'Agosto) who has a superpower.
Somehow, villainous Sylar (Zachary Quinto) is not off the show, even though it looked like Hiro stabbed him to death and sent his blood spilling into a drain. Quinto is on the set. And Sylar's image is flashed in NBC promos.
So, did his drained blood escape alive and give Sylar a way to resurrect life? Or is some other character channeling his face? Dunno. Quinto was excellent last year, but if he didn't die, wasn't the suspense of season one irrelevant?
Several new super people are on their way. David Anders, who played Sark on "Alias," portrays a baddie. There will be an Irish mobster, and Dania Ramirez -- who played A.J.'s fiancee on "The Sopranos" -- will play Mia, a super person on the run from cops in Central America. She has a twin brother, Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz).
"I get to speak my native language, which is, you know, amazing on an English-speaking show," Ramirez says.
*******
Perhaps as a result of its international success, the locales will be even more worldly this season. In addition to Japan, heroes will show up in Mexico, Egypt, Haiti, England and Ukraine.
"We're global now," Lee says. "We're on five continents, and over 40 countries. That's insane."
Plus, the cast will go on a world tour starting Aug. 27 to promote season two and the Aug. 28 launch of the first season's DVD. (NBC is no longer showing the previous episodes online.)
"We'll stop production for a week. We'll be going all over the world, pretty much. I'll be going to New York City and Toronto," Lee says. "Some of the other cities include London, Paris, Munich, Hong Kong" and Singapore.
*******
A central element that will not change is any character can die at any moment, even if such a fate never seems to truly befall a major hero, like Claire, Hiro and Peter. Still, cast members pick up each new script with some anxiety.
"That will never go away," Coleman tells me. "That's the nature of our show. As Adrian said so perfectly, 'I thought I was signing up to do a show called "Heroes," it turned out I signed up to do a show called "Survivor." '
"You go episode to episode, and be grateful for every one you get."
delfman@suntimes.com
HEROIC EFFORTS
On the way to "Heroes" beginning its second season Sept. 24, cast members are hosting reruns of their favorite episodes at 8 p.m Mondays on WMAQ-Channel 5:
* MONDAY Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia host "Homecoming."
* Aug. 27 Masi Oka and James Kyson Lee host "Six Months Ago."
* Sept. 3 Jack Coleman and Greg Grunberg host "Company Man."
* Sept. 10 Sendhil Ramamurthy and Zachary Quinto host "Parasite."
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