Zachary Quinto, who plays the superpowered serial killer Sylar on NBC's Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that his character isn't pure evil, he's just misunderstood. "I think he's somebody that sort of got overtaken by a desire that he didn't expect to overtake him as powerfully as it does," Quinto said in an interview. "And it starts from a place of really just wanting to be valued and desired, and it evolved into something that is really insatiable. And that's sort of what carries him: It's this insatiable hunger. I think he enjoys it to a certain degree. I think he certainly is aware of what he's capable of. But I don't think that it's something that he is sort of going after for the sake of going after it."

Quinto joined Heroes in the season's eighth episode, though Sylar has been mentioned in the show as early as episode two. Quinto said that viewers who think they know where his storyline is going will be as surprised as he was at the direction it takes in the second half of the season. "I had all these sort of expectations or preconceptions about where they would take it and how it would move forward," he said. "And every script I get, it's like a whole other 360 [or] 180 turn on a dime. So it's really going to go to places that I don't think people have any idea or any sort of expectation."