"This was not easy to pull off. But since we're an ensemble show, with many arcs playing out through the year, we found a way to jump into a small window in her schedule," Tim Kring, the show's executive producer and creator, said in a statement Monday.

Although initial reports suggested Anders was brought in as a series regular, I assure you that was not the case. Anders was technically hired as a recurring player, but apparently after seeing him in action as the 1,000-year-old Kensei, producers decided to keep him around full-time.

"There's a couple new villains," Kring said in a conference call on Aug. 2. "We're doing 11 episodes in a row that start on Sept. 24. And somewhere in that run of episodes we're going to introduce a very scary villain."

"At the end of last season we gave in the season finale a premonition of someone who is a very scary villain out there, who has invaded the dreams and nightmares of this character on our show named Molly Walker, who can locate people just by thinking about them," Kring said. "[We] teased the idea that there was another villain out there. And the audience can expect to see him somewhere in the first run of episodes."

What's on the DVD that fans will really be looking forward to?

Tim Kring: A couple of the big items are the original, uncut version of the pilot. As many people know the pilot was originally designed to air as a two hour pilot. It was recut and taken down to an hour, a couple of storylines were taken out of it that were never seen by anybody other than the Comic-Con audience last year. I think it gives tremendous insight into what the impetus of the story was originally about. Obviously, the commentary is always a really fun and interesting way to watch the show. There's also the deleted and extended scenes which will give people a tremendous amount of new information.

Again, I can't stress how cool enough the HD-DVD is that allows viewers to, through a device called U Control, allows them to follow various threads in the show. As you know the show has a symbol that is found frequently in the scenes and it highlights that and shows it to you; even in the most kind of hidden places in the scenes. There's even an extension that allows you to look closer at the artwork that Tim Sale did for our show.

What is one bonus feature that you would recommend people start with the Heroes: Season 1 DVD set?

Tim Kring: Again, I think a very interesting place to start would be the original pilot. The original pilot version told a couple of storylines that were dropped for various reasons. I talk a little bit about it in the commentary. I think it's a fascinating place to start because you begin to gain some insight into how the series took shape in the way that it did. Some of the key elements of the storytelling were shifted and you get to experience what the original though process was and how they changed. I think I'd start there.

Masi Oka: For me... I was actually a big fan of the The Score documentary because they showed a lot of cool stuff that I never knew was going on. Wendy & Lisa's process and what they bring to show is really unsung. That, for me, was it.