Heroes at Comic Con

As silence filled the room and the intensity of the audiences’ excitement for the Heroes panel at Comic Con built to a resounding crescendo, Blaire Butler, a host for the G4 program Attack of the Show, who was the moderator for this panel, approached the podium, making the grand announcement of the cast members in attendance.

First on stage was series creator Tim Kring, followed by original cast members Jack Coleman, Masi Oka, Hayden Panettiere, Adrian Pasdar, Zachary Quinto and Milo Ventimiglia as well as new cast members Robert Knepper, Dawn Olivieri, Ray Park and Madeline Zima.

Heroes returns to NBC on September 21.

After the audience calmed down enough for the moderator to speak, the cast and Mr. Kring stood, giving the audience a standing ovation for its continued support of the show. This was followed by Mr. Kring’s explanation of the “theme” behind the new Volume 5 of the show known as Redemption. The “new wrinkle” in the show is a family of people – a traveling carnival – who powers have been “hiding in plain sight”.

With that introduction, a teaser trailer of clips for the first three episodes, which Mr. Kring explained have been filmed thus far, is shown to an exuberant audience. The roar once the clip was aired was deafening and proved that the once nearly-vilified series is back to Season 1 excellent form.

The first question posed to each cast member is what is in store for each of them this new season. Mr. Coleman explained that Noah is setting up a new company while his marriage and world are falling apart around him. He stated that, “he’s an island trying to find solid ground.”

Mr. Oka then stated that Hiro is still having the nose bleeds and alludes to Hiro’s illness possibly being “terminal”. He stated that, “he realizes his true destiny and goes back to Yamagata and starts a business with Ando.” It was also stated that Hiro’s powers are out of control and he is “trying to fix the mistakes of his past”.

Ms. Panettiere explained that Claire is now a college freshman, getting the “taste of a normal life and making friends, meeting interesting people like her roommate” (played by Madeline Zima). However, Claire is like “a fish out of water in college.”

Mr. Pasdar is a bit more restrained with his explanation of Nathan’s life now, as he and Sylar (Zachary Quinto) are sharing a body, allowing for a “Jekyll and Hyde-type thing” with events that will be happening mid-season described as “interesting.” Mr. Quinto then stated that Sylar will “exist in two places; inside Matt’s head and in Nathan’s body”.

Mr. Ventimiglia explained that Peter is back to being a paramedic and that there will be more humor in his life, but he will “still fight when needed.”

The new cast members were then asked to explain their characters:

Mr. Knepper then explained his character is a “carnie” named Samuel, who inadvertently ends up as the leader after the unexpected death of his brother. His plan is to lure the “heroes” into a schemed that would not be alluded to. His power is earth moving.

Ms. Olivieri stated that her character, Lydia, is a mystery, but did explain that she is an empath with tattoos that appear all over her body that move and change as circumstances move and change. Her character has an unusual bond with Samuel.

Mr. Park will be seen as Edgar, a man who likes to play with knives and has unbelievable speed and skill with these weapons. He is sent out in the “world” by Samuel on a special mission.

Ms. Zima will be Claire’s college friend, Gretchen Berg, who is the first real friend Claire has had since high school in Texas. During the teaser clip there was a shared kiss between Claire and Gretchen shown and, of course, that set off the audience, but when a question was posed about romantic entanglements for the two, the cast and Mr. Kring were rather mum on any details.

Some highlights for the upcoming season and more that were discussed during the question and answer session at the end of the panel included:

• Mr. Coleman was excited about the clip show in the teaser that depicted Noah being trapped in a car filling up with water;

• Mr. Oka’s excitement about working with Mr. Knepper;

• Ms. Panettiere looking forward to going back to more “heartfelt stuff” within the episodes;

• Mr. Pasdar was excited about working with Swoozie Kurtz, who will be back as Angela’s old friend Millie and was looking forward to the “new powers” Nathan would be experiencing;

• Mr. Quinto stated he got to work a lot with Greg Grunberg (who was unable to attend the panel because his son’s Bar Mitzvah was being held), got to work with a baby and climbed out of a grace, which was shown in the teaser clip;

• Mr. Ventimiglia explained he spent time in Iraq and joked he was holding a 50 caliber machine gun; then he stated it was great working with Mr. Park, Mr. Knepper and Mr. Coleman for very specific scenes, some of which were featured in the clip;

• Mr. Knepper talked about filming a scene in “Central Park” with a green screen when suddenly coyotes started howling and it was hard for the cast on set at the time to keep a straight face because obviously they were filming in Los Angeles;

• Ms. Olivieri joked about looking forward to “stirring up trouble” this season;

• Mr. Park explained that he is a “fanboy” and stated he “can’t believe I’m working on the show” and getting “to do all the things he wanted to do”;

• Ms. Zima said she enjoyed “working with Hayden” since that is who she spends most of her scenes with;

• When asked the worst injury received on set, Ms. Panettiere stated it had to be the “crispy cream burn” from the house fire;

• Mr. Quinto was asked who would win: Sylar or Spock. He answered succinctly that Spock would win hands down, as “Leonard would drop me in 30 seconds”; and

• Mr. Kring explained this season would be more evenly split between characters and only three main storylines will be the focus of the season.

At the close of the panel a sneak peek scene between Edgar (Ray Park), Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Noah (Jack Coleman) was shown where Peter and Noah learn about Edgar’s power, which Peter is able to mimic, of course; and the crowd went wild.

To see Heroes return to its former glory, please tune in to NBC on September 21. Until then you can learn more about Heroes Volume 5: Redemption as well as past seasons by visiting NBC.com.