Heroes Travel ahead in time for a sneak peek at Season 2 of TV's newest sci-fi phenomenon.
Q&A With Masi Oka
The characters on Heroes will leap forward four months when the show returns on September 24--everyone, that is except Hiro. The time-tripping fanboy, played by Masi Oka, was suddenly teleported to 1671 Japan in the cliff-hanger of last May's finale. The Season 2 premiere will find him right where we left him--stuck in the middle of samaurai who are about to wage war.
Immediate danger aside, isn't this Hiro's dream come true? Mine, too. It's the dream of many Japanese boys. We grow up playing samurai like kids in the U.S. play cowboys. Even the crime prodeurals on Japanese TV are set in fedual Japan.
Will you spill some exclusive scoop? Next season, Hiro meets the legendary warrior Kensei, his hero from childhood, but it turns out the storybooks have exaggerated. Kensei isn't the kind of man Hiro idolized. This will put Japan's future at stake, so Hiro has to make this Kensei into the one of legend.
Alias' David Anders has been cast as Kensei, but he isn't Japanese. What's with that? If you remember, Kensei didn't look Japanese in the ancient tapestry [seen in Season 1]. But I have no idea where the writers are going with this. Here's another mystery: They told me something terrible will be happening in the present, maybe becuase Hiro wasn't there. When he returns to modern day, he's in for the shock of his life.
Heroes has also hired Japanese pop star Eriko Tamura to play a feudal princess. Do we detect a hint of romance in the air? She'll fall in love with Hiro, but this will be a disaster because she is supposed to fall in love with Kensei. Eriko is very famous in Japan--not quite a Britney Spears, more a like a Kelly Clarkson.
Frist Charlie from the diner, now this. Is Hiro doomed to fall in love with the right girls at the wrong time? I think that's going to be the nature of every romatnic story fro Hiro. When the writers decide they're done with me, I hope they send Hiro back in teim where he can live forever in a an infinite time loop with one of his women. Or maybe all of them! It can be like Big Love. "I'll be right back, Charlie. O'm going to run next door and see the princess!"
In August the Heroes cast goes on a world tour to hype the show. How will it feel returning to Japan as a big star? More eventful than the last time I went! I fled there for New Year's Eve 1999 because of the Y2K bug, thinking that if there was an apoclyptic event I'd rather die in my homeland. But nothing happened, except three naked guys stood on top of a bus and threw beer bottles.
Meet the Newest Hero
Move over Niki-Jessica! Heroes is bringing on another scary-sweet heroine. Maya, played by Dania Ramirez, will be seen working her way through Central America and Mexico to try to enter the U.S. illegally. Her super-power is still hush-hush. "Maya is a very good person but her abilities have made her extremely dangerous," Ramirez reveals. "This has carused a lot of havoc in her life." "She'll be on the run with her twin brother, Alejandro (Shalim Oritiz), and find border trouble along the way.
Ramirez is no stranger to tough cookies--or fantastical ons. She played potential slayer Caridad on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the tattooed mutant Callisto in "X-Men: The Last Stand."
The Dominican Republic-born actress had never seen Heroes until she got the call to audition, so she did a crash course on DVD. "I'm like the hugest fan righ now," she says. "I'n drying to find out how Maya fits into the big puzzle."
Mythology Grows with Origins
Don't assume Heroes Orgins was born out of pure inspiration. The motivation for the six episode spin-off--slated to air in 2008--was panic and necessity. "During the first season of Heroes we had such long breaks between some of our episodes that we lost viewers," says creator Tim Kring. "That's why we came up with Origins to help keep those viewers around."
Here's the plan: NBC will air 24 episodes of Heroes next season wiht only two brief periods (December and March), ending with a big-bang finale in April. Then comes Origins running through May sweeps.
Each hour of the anthology will profile a new hero. "in the first blush of discovery," Kring says. "I'm fansinated by how these special abilities start to show themselves and the idea of catching these character when the experience is still new."
None of the Heroes regulars will be seen int he spin-off, but each off the new protagonists will somehow link up with the mothership. "There will be little Easter Eggs for the hard-core fans of Heroes, things that tie these episodes in fun ways to the characters and situations we already know," Kring adds. "For example, we might do a story about a mailman who has abilities and we'll see him delivering a letter to the Bennet home." If some of these characters really click, they may be added to Heroes.
Kring hopes to snag top stars, directors and writers who don't want long-term TV commitments. He also cautions that plans are still "very utopian", since Orgins won't began production unitl January. "Right now we're in a sky's-the-limit mode, so let's talk when reality sets in," he says. "Then I'll know what kind of fool I am!"
Check out Michael Logan's article, with Pictures in the "July 23-August 5, 2007" Sci-Fi Preview on sale in stores on Thursday.
Subscribers might all ready have it in their mail like I did! If not maybe tomorrow?
