Dania Ramirez, who played Callisto in X-Men: The Last Stand and has a recurring role on "The Sopranos," has been added as a regular on the NBC's hit series "Heroes." The show returns for a second season in the fall.

Ramirez will play Maya, a new hero whose powers are being kept under wraps.

"Heroes" extends Ramirez's relationship with NBC. This past development season, she co-starred in the network's drama pilot "Fort Pit."

Maya is one of four to five new characters expected to be added to "Heroes" next season, but her character might be the only regular one. The other roles, most of which are said to have international flavor, include a sexy boyfriend for Claire (Hayden Panettiere), a 28-year-old black mother, a surrogate for Niki's (Ali Larter) son and an Irish mobster

Eric Roberts says his role on the hit drama series Heroes has helped him build a whole new audience under the age of 15.

"I thought I was really famous up until I got Heroes," says Roberts, who plays the slightly sinister character Thompson on the NBC show, during a conference call with media this week.

"I had no idea how much more famous I could get overnight. It's been fun and it's been silly."

The 51-year-old actor says he can't stop at a traffic light without being recognized and hearing a Heroes comment these days, and on the set it's "kind of a paid vacation" because the cast is so talented and fun, and the series is a huge success.

On the set of ‘Heroes,’ Wizard talks to George Takei about his role as Hiro’s mysterious father, why playing a bad guy can be cool and how he feels about the planned ‘Star Trek’ revamp


As “Heroes” sets to return for its last pod of the season, fans are ramping up for what everyone behind the scenes is calling the best episodes yet.

Tonight, the amazing freshman show will resume airing with the first of the final five installments. The story about a group of ordinary people who discover they have superhuman powers—and all the angst, terror and joy that goes along with it—will enter its final arc and chronicle how some of the Heroes will work together to prevent the imminent end of the world.

A month ago, Wizard Universe and other online journalists were invited by NBC to the set of the show to watch actors Masi Oka, James Kyson Lee and George Takei film a scene from Episode 22 (called “Landslide”), which airs on May 14. Between takes, we were able to interview the three actors individually.

In this installment we hear from sci-fi legend George Takei, best known as Sulu from the original “Star Trek” TV series and the first six Star Trek movies.

On “Heroes,” Takei plays Kaito Nakamura, a Japanese industrialist who is part of a secret organization that monitors these people with superhuman powers—unbeknownst to his son, Hiro (Oka), who possesses the ability to travel through time and space. On set, Takei is dressed in a Japanese hakama, as is Oka, and they are in a sword shop. In this scene, Kaito has been training his son in the next room on how to use a sword, but they are interrupted by the news that Hiro’s best friend, Ando (Lee), has just secretly taken a sword to try to save the world by himself.

We talked to Takei twice—once briefly between camera setups on the set and later on the lot outside the wardrobe trailer in an area reserved for smokers. (None of us smoked, by the way.) The following interview combines those two conversations.

Hello everyone, this is Thomas. First of all, I would like to thank everyone for all their messages and comments on my page. For those of you interested in my music, I am in the middle of working in the studio on my second album right now, and your support is especially appreciated at this time. For those of you who have sent me messages regarding heroes, and more importantly "the gay controversy", I hope my words of explanation will not fall on deaf ears or hearts. I am truly sorry for what transpired on the series and who it has effected. I have been shown a lot of, to be blunt, hate mail directed at me and my manager for the way the character of Zach played out. I would like it to be known by everyone, that I have played a gay character three times before in my career, one when I was twelve (which is on youtube), one when I was fifteen, and another when I was seventeen. I, nor my management have ever had any kind of problem with creating a gay character. To me acting is about being prepared to play all kinds of roles and it is an honor and a challenge to portray ANYTHING that comes my way. What transpired on heroes is something far more complicated than anyone being "afraid" to make Zach homosexual. The character that I created in the beginning of the show, a process I take very seriously, was based on Zach being an outcast who had a burning love for Claire, a crush that drew him to her and effected every ounce of his self esteem around her. I created the character that way because it was WRITTEN IN THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT that he was in love with Claire. Please do remember, I was never under contract with heroes. I was hired per episode, and was not informed in the beginning of the series, of any planned character arc, because I was told there wasnt one. What ensued later was a combination of miscommunication, confusion, surprise and last minute desicions, not a knee jerk reaction from me or my team. Lastly, I want to make it VERY clear that me leaving Heroes has NOTHING to do with this "gay controversy". You will notice, I filmed five or so more episodes after the situation, and only at that point, months later, did I even begin to audition for Sarah Connor Chronicles. Only then, once I got the part of John, was I not permitted to do any more episodes of Heroes. That's just how television networks work. I write this because I believe it is only fair, that you know what actually happened and how, and not what you are being told in other areas of information. mis-information. I would love at some point in the future to play a gay character, that I was aware was intended to be gay, that I had a chance to know, and a chance to really infuse with the performance that THAT character would deserve. Thank you for your time, your support, and to those that this situation has hurt, I, and everyone affiliated with the series are truly sorry.
Yours,
Thomas Dekker

Greg Grunberg’s band played. Greg was on drums, James Denton (DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) played guitar, and Hugh Laurie (HOUSE) was on keyboards! Tim Kring got on stage with a guitar and jammed. Wendy and Lisa (our composers) took the stage at one point along with Sheila E. on drums and they ROCKED THE HOUSE! Jack Coleman, (HRG himself) got up there and sang his lungs out. Even Noah Gray-Cabey got on stage on keyboards and blew the roof off the place...

Adam also had to deal with a bit of last minute budget cut compromises, and he dealt with these gracefully. Dealing with the budget on HEROES is a bit like playing a fish on a hook. We’re always letting out line and then reeling it back in. We look at the needs of the script, where we are in the season, whether it’s a sweeps show or a bookend show or not. Sometimes we’re just looking at whether we’ve recently been good or bad and whether we have to make up for it. Unfortunately for Adam and episode 19, we’d just come off a spending spree and needed to cut back. Like a suburban couple, looking over the credit card debt from last month’s drunken weekend in Vegas, we realized there’d be no eating out this month, and that the 60’ flat screen would have to wait.

Several significant cuts were made, literally a day before shooting. First, we had a really great location for, what we called, “the bowels of Prima-Tech”, HRG’s company. It was a place where they’d built and tested jets with a lot of cool rooms for cells and corridors. We brought those scenes back to the existing cell that we’d built on stage for Sylar, and to the halls and corridors that surrounded our sets. Also, originally, HRG, Matt and Ted were going to have their dialogue scene (“wait a second, your middle management”) on the run, while stealing a car. We moved that back to the diner set we owned. There were also more beats of action in the Sylar/Peter fight, including that Sylar was pushed out a window by Suresh and fell several stories to the pavement.

At what point in filming are you guys right now?

We are doing number 23, end of 22 and beginning of 23, which is the last of the year, of the season.

How are you feeling about it?

Well you know what a lot of things are going to be happening in the next 5 episodes you know. A lot of people will die obviously. There will be an explosion. And you will have a lot of answers of all those questions. But ah, what else can I give you

SHOTS IN THE DARK WELCOMES JEPH LOEB

Chicago, IL (April 10, 2007) - Shots in the Dark launched with a bang, and now they are proud to announce that their first guest will be the one and only Jeph Loeb. The episode will be released at 6pm on Saturday, April 14th. Fans will know Loeb from his comic work on almost every famous character from Superman to Spider-man, as well as his television work on Smallville, Lost, and Heroes. Loeb is a legend in the geek world and Shots in the Dark is proud to welcome him as their first guest.

If you have questions to ask Jeph, you can ask them in the Shots in the Dark forums - simply go to the Shots in the Dark mainpage at ShotgunReviews.com/Shots, and click on "Forum". There will also be a thread on Newsarama.com for questions, but questions asked in the Shots in the Dark forums will get first billing. Anything you want to know about Jeph, the Shots in the Dark crew will ask!

ABOUT JEPH LOEB
Multi-talented Jeph Loeb made his mark in films by writing hits like "Commando" and "Teen Wolf". In the comics field, he's the acclaimed writer of books like "Batman: The Long Halloween", "Superman For All Seasons", "Spider-Man: Blue", "Daredevil: Yellow" and many more. For television, Mr. Loeb has produced and written for phenoms like "Smallville" and "Lost". He's currently a writer and producer of "Heroes", and is working on several projects at Marvel Comics.

ABOUT SHOTS IN THE DARK:

The cast of "Shots in the Dark" has a great deal of experience under its belt. Not only is every member a seasoned radio host, they all bring their own unique expertise to the table. The cast boasts a video game designer, an aspiring comic book writer, and an otaku, among the many talents honed by the "Shots in the Dark" crew. Once a team brought together by a love of video games, they have now branched out into the many areas they know and love. In their past exploits they have entertained such amazing guests as Mike Marts, Senior Editor of DC Comics, nerdcore rappers MC Lars and mc chris, comic book writers Peter David and Jeff Amano, and Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon.

ABOUT SHOTGUNREVIEWS.COM

ShotgunReviews.com launched in 1999 as a site devoted to pop culture reviews and commentary. Every Monday, the site provides the Best Shots comics review column for Newsarama.com, the most popular comics news site on the internet. ShotgunReviews.com is read around the world and has a record of producing live music shows for charitable causes. The site's writers contribute to dozens of other print and online platforms, and are regarded as some of the sharpest observers of culture around.

You can check out the Shotgun Reviews site at ShotgunReviews.com. The "Shots in the Dark" subsite of Shotgun Reviews has already launched and you can find it at www.ShotgunReviews.com/shots (which is where you can find the podcast), and you can also find the crew on MySpace.com, at www.myspace.com/shotsinthedarkshow.

Shots in the Dark is sponsored by Hero Headquarters, an amazing comic shop in Buffalo Grove, IL, where you can satisfy all of your geek desires. You can learn more about Hero Headquarters at HeroHeadquarters.com.