Heroes is an American superhero drama television series created by Tim Kring that aired on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006, to February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover that they have superhuman abilities and how these abilities take effect in the characters' lives as they work together to prevent catastrophic futures. The series emulates the aesthetic style and storytelling of American comic books, using multi-episode story arcs that build upon a larger, more encompassing narrative. It was produced by Tailwind Productions in association with Universal Media Studios. It was filmed primarily in Los Angeles, California.
Four complete seasons aired, ending on February 8, 2010. The critically acclaimed first season had a run of 23 episodes and garnered an average of 14.3 million viewers in the United States, receiving the highest rating for an NBC drama premiere in five years. The second season of Heroes attracted an average of 13.1 million viewers in the U.S. and marked NBC's sole series among the top 20 ranked programs in total viewership for the 2007–2008 season. Heroes earned a number of awards and nominations, including Primetime Emmy Awards, Golden Globes, People's Choice Awards, and British Academy Television Awards.
An online extension of the series, Heroes 360 Experience (later rebranded as Heroes Evolutions), was created to explore the Heroes universe and provides insight into the show's mythology. Other official Heroes media include magazines, action figures, tie-in and interactive websites, a mobile game, a novel, clothing and other merchandise. In the fall of 2008, NBC Digital Entertainment released a series of online content for the summer, including more original web content, wireless iTV interactivity, graphic novels available for mobile viewing and webisodes.
A 13-episode follow-up miniseries, Heroes Reborn, premiered on NBC on September 24, 2015.
Cast and characters
Originally, Kring designed the series to have an ever-shifting cast. However, his motivation changed when he realized how popular the original cast was with audiences; therefore, he brought back most of the first-season cast for the second season, with a few additions who received star billing. In its first season, the show features an ensemble cast of twelve main characters making it the third largest cast in American primetime television behind Desperate Housewives and Lost. Although NBC's first-season cast page listed only ten characters, Leonard Roberts, who first appeared in the series' fifth episode as D L Hawkins, was an additional member of the original full-time cast. In the first-season episode "Fallout", Jack Coleman, who portrays Noah Bennet, was upgraded from a recurring role to become the twelfth full-time cast member.
The following remained major characters during all four seasons: Milo Ventimiglia as Peter Petrelli, a hospice nurse with the ability to mimic abilities of other people Hayden Panettiere as Claire Bennet, a high-school cheerleader who can spontaneously regenerate Masi Oka as Hiro Nakamura, an office worker who can manipulate space-time Adrian Pasdar as Nathan Petrelli, a congressional candidate with the ability to fly Greg Grunberg as Matt Parkman, an LAPD police officer who can read people's minds
Although Niki Sanders, played by Ali Larter, was written out in the third season, Larter remained on the show throughout all four seasons, playing Sanders' sister, Tracy Strauss for the final season.
During the first two seasons, some characters were written out to make room for new characters with new stories. In season one, Claude, portrayed by Christopher Eccleston, who had the power of invisibility, was instrumental in helping Peter understand his powers, throwing him off a building to try to help him fly, but he discovered he healed instead. Simone Deveaux was the first major character to be written out, dying near the end of season one. Hawkins became a guest star after the events of the first season's finale, making two appearances throughout season two. Isaac Mendez was also written out, dying at the hands of Sylar, which was shown during Hiro Nakamura's time traveling expedition to New York earlier in season one.