Creator: ‘Heroes’ still has many stories to tell

There are logical reasons for CBS to introduce a “Supergirl” TV show this fall (comic book movies are all the rage) and the nostalgic appeal of “The Muppets” on ABC is clear.

But even in the current rehash, reboot and regurgitate TV culture, NBC’s reliance on “Heroes Reborn” (8-10 p.m. Sept. 24) remains a head-scratcher.

When “Heroes” debuted in 2006, it had a smash first season that made a star out of Zachary Quinto, who played villainous Sylar. But by the end of the show’s first season, with its unsatisfying finale, there was the hint of problems in long-term storytelling that only grew as the series wore on and more and more viewers abandoned it.

When “Heroes” went off the air in 2010, its ratings had dropped from the more than 14 million who tuned in for the series premiere to about 4 million viewers for the series finale. A headline at TVFanatic.com captured the sentiment of some viewers succinctly: “Heroes Review: It’s finally over!”

So why exactly is NBC bringing the show back?

Series creator Tim Kring always felt the series ended too soon, that he had more stories to tell — and more viewers who wanted to hear it than were captured by Nielsen ratings.

“The last full calendar year the show was on the air, 2009, we were the No. 1 most downloaded show in the world, legally and illegally downloaded,” Kring said. “We were right at the top of the most-streamed shows, the top of the most DVRed show and we sold lots and lots of DVDs. It was very hard to either acknowledge or crow about the fact that your show is being watched in all these other ways besides the network, but now that’s something the network looks at and realizes, there was a big audience all along.”

NBC is calling “Heroes Reborn” a 13-episode event series.

“In terms of what we learned from the previous series, a big chunk of that was taken care of by the fact it was an order of 13 episodes with the idea of beginning, middle and end, which took off … the pressure of how do you keep something going,” Kring said. “‘Heroes’ was best when it was perceived as rare and special. Part of being rare and special is not being on the air all the time.”

The “Heroes Reborn” story kicks off a year after a terrorist attack in Odessa, Texas, home to cheerleader Claire Bennet in the original series. Actress Hayden Panetierre, who’s occupied on ABC soap “Nashville,” won’t return for “Heroes Reborn” so her character has been killed off. But Claire’s father, Noah/Horned-Rim Glasses (Jack Coleman), returns after a conspiracy theorist (Henry Zebrowski) reveals the truth about the Texas attack.

This new series introduces a mix of new characters with superhero skills — including one played by Zachary Levi (“Chuck”) — and returnees, including Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg), Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) and the Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis).

Kring said time has not stopped in the “Heroes” universe. The show picks up five years later, so there’s five years of story viewers are not privy to. In his mind, “Heroes Reborn” is essentially season 10 of “Heroes,” putting returning fans and newcomers on a closer-to-equal footing.

“HRG is a character whose storyline is uncovering the mystery of what happened in the intervening years,” Kring said. “He unpacks a lot of the mythology from the original series.”

That will include exploring the events of that Odessa attack that killed Claire, whose power was her indestructibility.

“She died along with many, many other people at this event that happened, which is a big mystery because we all know Claire shouldn’t die,” Kring said.