When it was first announced that Heroes would be returning to NBC in the form of a 13-episode miniseries called Heroes Reborn, I immediately started thinking about who from the original show would come back for this new series. We all did.
Then, as original cast member after original cast member was confirmed to not be appearing on this new series — from Hayden Panettierre to Milo Ventimiglia to Zachary Quinto — the future of Heroes Reborn looked about as bright as that ominous, swirling sky featured in the show's promotional materials. Would it be possible to enjoy this reboot without at least a cameo from some of our favorite characters from the series?
Though the jury is out on that until Heroes Reborn premieres on Thursday night, Tim Kring, the creator and showrunner of both series, said at the Television Critics Association in August that he always intended the series to be "very elastic in its premise" and "repopulate itself," meaning that it would be easy for brand-new viewers to pick up and watch. We'll have to wait and see if indeed they do.
Don't worry, all you devoted Heroes fans out there. Heroes Reborn will in fact feature many characters from Heroes with the original actors playing them as well. How could you do anything relating to Heroes without HRG or Hiro Nakamura? I mean, really.
However, since Heroes Reborn is set five years after the series finale of Heroes takes place, your favorite characters are probably looking a bit different these days. Five years is a long time, and whether or not you were a fan of Heroes the first time around, it'd probably be helpful for you to know why these returning characters are important to the story and how they're going to fit into Heroes Reborn. Here's what you need to know about each of the Heroes OGs in this new series with some MAJOR SPOILERS about the original show ahead, of course.
Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman)
So, there's a question mark next to Molly's name up there because she hasn't been confirmed as a returning character for Heroes Reborn. However, there is a character by the name of Molly played by Francesca Eastwood listed in the miniseries' IMDb page. Molly is a fairly common name, so this could just be a coincidence, but that would just be too big of a coincidence, wouldn't it? When Eastwood's casting in Heroes Reborn was announced in April, Deadline reported that her character was rumored to be "a manipulative young woman," but no character name was provided. Yahoo TV reported in June that Molly "isn't listed among the people with superpowers," which differs from the Molly on Heroes. We can only hope that this character does end up being the Molly we all know and love, albeit with a lot more edge.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
