HEROES REBORN at TCA: Live-Blog

HEROES REBORN is closing out the NBC Television Critics Association day. Creator Tim Kring, as well as cast members Jack Coleman, Ryan Guzman, Robbie Kay, Zachary Levi, Judi Shekoni, and Kiki Sukezane will be here to talk with press.

Follow along for a live-blog of what they have to say about the new event series…

5:18 PM: Starting off with clips/teasers. A few new things, but nothing significantly different than what has been released.

5:21 PM: “Listen, the show has always had violent moments have always been treated with respect and with care,” Kring says of the parallels between Levi’s character shooting up a room full of people to real life circumstances.

5:23 PM: “Some of the actors did not have abilities,” Kring says of bringing back the original cast. Much of the cast was approached once they started writing things and things came organically. But Kring always saw this as a show that could repopulate amongst itself.

5:24 PM: “I was never shy to talk about the fact that I’m not a comic book geek and didn’t come from that world,” Kring says. He approached it as a character-first storytelling.

5:26 PM: “Ironically, this is actually closer to the original idea,” Kring says of doing this revival. He says he was always most interested in the origin story tales. And once you answer the big questions of that, you have to then replace those with other questions, but Kring felt those wouldn’t be as fascinating. So now this is closer to that.

5:28 PM: Spoiler alert: In the year prior to HEROES REBORN picking up, Claire died. HRG will be exploring the backstory to catch up viewers.

5:29 PM: “The biggest pitfall for us was always the amount of story we had to tell,” Kring says. It took them 14 months to make their first season, which is not sustainable. With REBORN, it’s 13 episodes — a beginning, middle, and end, which allows them to do “an aggressive” type of storytelling, Kring says. He says the contract they’re making with the audience is the end of 13 will be an actual conclusion.

5:30 PM: “I’ve always felt the brand was elastic enough and a broad enough premise,” Kring says. He feels they can always come back to the premise of normal people finding out about their powers and saving the world.

5:32 PM: “We’re bad,” Levi downplays. “We’re misunderstood…We’ve been given this really cool world to play characters that are ambiguous. I think so much of what HEROES has been has been challenging people’s perceptions.” He points to Zachary Quinto’s Sylar who could relate to his pain. He says there are other character on REBORN who are more “defined in their villainy,” whereas his character and Shekoni’s character have a reason for doing what they’re doing.

Levi points out that sci-fi lets people tackle big issues, social issues, that you don’t have to hit head-on…you can put it in the subtext.

5:36 PM: “We left off at an absolutely fantastic moment that set things into motion what we’re doing here,” Kring says. They didn’t know when they were filming the series finale that it would be it — it felt unfinished to Kring.

Kring also says that the exact amount of time between the HEROES season 4 finale and the HEROES REBORN premiere is what’s passed in real-life. They’re not treating it as if they are doing season 5 — it’s as if the show had been continuing on in the meantime and it’s season 10.

5:37 PM: “Tommy has this ability to make other people disappear,” Kay teases. The problem is he doesn’t know where these people go when he does it.

5:39 PM: “They fold in that move the story in a big way,” Kring says. He points out that Masi Oka’s Hiro’s power of time-travel could be useful. So could Angela Petrelli’s prophecies.

5:40 PM: “It was amazing, because I thought after the first series ended…there might be a mini-series or movie [to wrap things up],” Coleman says. But after time passed, he stopped thinking about it. Then the Olympics ad aired, and the original cast started messaging each other in surprise.

5:42 PM: Kay says he identifies with Tommy because of their shared unstable childhoods. For Kay, he had to move often for his dad’s work. For Tommy, his life was disrupted and “he has no foundation.”

5:43 PM: “If you want someone to deal with grief and anger…that’s something I love to do…Joanna is someone who kills, but has a heart; she’s seeking redemption,” Shekoni says.

5:44 PM: Guzman’s character, Carlos, is being thrust into a heroic spotlight. “He’s having an identity crisis,” Guzman says, while also dealing with the loss of someone dear to him. He’s presented with an opportunity, and he doesn’t know if he should take it.

Sukezane’s character lives in Japan, she’s trying to track down her missing father. “That’s the only thing I know so far,” Sukezane says.

Kring says her character might be the most unique the show has done. He teases her character is confused when we first meet her.

5:46 PM: “All of the characters that return are peppered in the show,” Kring says. Mohinder’s research ties to some of the scientific discussions the show is having.

5:48 PM: Levi ends the panel by thanking us for sticking around for the very last TCA panel. And we’re done!