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Heroes turns 20: Creator Tim Kring on making the ‘hard show,’ casting Hayden Panettiere, and having ‘more story to tell’

The writer-producer believes that his NBC hit was ahead of its time.

By Derek Lawrence September 25, 2026 11:00 a.m. ET

The season 2 cast of ‘Heroes’.

KEY POINTS

*The Heroes creator reflects on the series, 20 years after the premiere.
*Tim Kring explains why casting Hayden Panettiere was a no-brainer.
*He teases whether there could be more Heroes in the future.

Exactly 20 years ago, shortly before the launch of the MCU, a different group of heroes memorably came together to save the world...and the cheerleader.

On Sept. 25, 2006, NBC premiered Heroes, a superhero drama about ordinary people who suddenly discover that they have special abilities. As if that wasn’t enough to grapple with, they are each meant to play a role in stopping an upcoming catastrophic event. The characters ranged from a Texas high school cheerleader to a New York congressional candidate to a Los Angeles stripper, while the cast included a group of recognizable but not overly familiar faces, including Gilmore Girls’ Milo Ventimiglia, Varsity Blues’ Ali Larter, Alias’ Greg Grunberg, and Remember the Titans’ Hayden Panettiere.

Despite the lack of star power and the belief that the superhero genre didn’t work on TV (unless you had Superman!), Heroes was an instant smash hit, with the first season earning eight Emmy nominations and becoming a certified pop culture phenomenon.

“We were ahead of [the superhero boom],” creator Tim Kring tells Entertainment Weekly. “The thought of doing superhero stuff on network television, it was felt that that audience was too fringe and small. But it was a sleeping giant waiting to be tapped into, and that audience was much bigger than the networks thought it was.”

Milo Ventimiglia on ‘Heroes’.
Everett
In the years following Heroes’ success, the CW basically built its entire network around superheroes for a decade, while Marvel eventually brought the MCU to the small screen as well.

Heroes ran for four seasons, but unfortunately, the buzz and ratings never recovered after season 2 abruptly ended 15 episodes short of its official order due to the 2007 writers’ strike. As a result, the sophomore installment was forced to end on a cliffhanger that wasn’t resolved until season 3 premiered, 10 months later.

Kring and a few of the original cast members returned in 2015 for the 13-episode limited series Heroes Reborn, but as Heroes turns 20, Kring still thinks there’s “more story to tell.”….

https://ew.com/heroes-turns-20-creator-tim-kring-reflects-casting-hayden-panettiere-12137112

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