July 2008 News Archive

Milo Ventimiglia spent nearly a week recently on a USO tour, hanging out with troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

“The tendency is for people to just read the news and talk about the war,” Milo said of the trip. “That wasn’t enough for me. To be able to come out here and say ‘thank you’ was important to me. It made me really happy to see smiling faces. That’s what it is all about, knowing I made their day.”

The Heroes actor added:

“My father’s a veteran, my uncle’s a veteran, my grandfather was a veteran. I nearly went into the Navy myself when I was 18. So I got a chance to go overseas and give the men and women of the armed forces a little bit of a respite."

Turns out, numerous troops follow the hit NBC show whenever they can, too.

“When I was over in Iraq and Afghanistan, a lot of soldiers were like, `Dude, will you just kill Sylar already? Will you just get rid of him?’ And I’m like, `Man, I don’t know if you’re gonna want that just yet. I think you’re going to be very surprised as to what happens.’”

We've already shared a few major Heroes spoilers from last week's Comic-Con panel.

Here, meanwhile, are a couple of shots from the event. Milo Ventimiglia, Hayden Panettiere look to be enjoying themselves in front of the audience...

At Comic-Con over the weekend, Heroes creator Tim Kring revealed the most in-depth look yet at Heroes Season Three.

Those in attendance got to see a snippet of the season premiere, which airs on September 22. Here are a few HUGE spoilers we can release about it:

• The action begins with a "future" Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) coming back to modern day in order to shoot Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) before he exposes their secret powers to the world.

• Matt (Greg Grunberg) discovers future-Peter's real identity... but Parkman is banished into the middle of nowhere before he can do anything about it.

• Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) finally isolates Maya's (Dania Ramirez) powers in chemical form; he uses a syringe to inject himself with the magic elixir rather than give the girl what she desires: freedom from the hell of her super-human affliction.

• Sylar (Zachary Quinto) traps Claire (Hayden Panettiere) in her house.

• Hiro (Masi Oki) disobeys his dead father's command and opens up the office safe that holds part of a formula that, if completed, could destroy the world.

• Niki appears, but she now looks professional and is possibly married to an older man.

Wow. That's a lot to digest. Comment on it in our Heroes forum now!

We'd like to thank every reader that submitted an entry for this week's Heroes Caption Contest.

In the end, reader "Brandon Moran" took home the winning prize, as his reference to the popular Verizon phone commercials made us laugh.

Better luck next time to everyone else - and remember to come back and play every week!

I have the Verizon deal so why did only one guy show up?

According to Masi Oka, chapter three of Heroes - titled "Villains" - won't just be showcasing your basic evil character.

Everyone on the series will show a dark side.

"I think that you'll see a dark side of everybody, because being a hero or villain is very subjective," Oka said in an interview at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour. "Each human being has the ability to become a hero or a villain. It's the choices that we make every day, and that can be influenced by the things around us."

On the upcoming season, Oka's Hiro will be faced with a new personal enemy: Daphne, aka "Speedster," played by Brea Grant.

"She's Hiro's nemesis," Oka said. "And every time Hiro sees her, he calls her his nemesis. And she's great. She's very spunky. She's a speedster. It's kind of like Batman has his Joker; Hiro has his Daphne."

The actor added:

"Brea's fantastic. She came from Friday Night Lights. She's such a joy to work with. We had a chemistry test, and I loved working with her, and we have so much fun working together. Hopefully you guys will enjoy it as well."

What's tramautizing Claire on Heroes this season?

What is worse than Sylar?

What big change is in store for Peter?

Kristin from E! Online has hinted at a wide range of Heroes spoilers in her latest column, answering more than just the questions posed above. Here's a look:

About Those Villains... According to [Milo Ventimiglia and Hayden Panettiere], these new villains mean business. Bad business. Hayden said:

"There's many things much worse than Sylar (Zachary Quinto)," while Ventimiglia added:, "I think everybody [this season] is confronting something worse than Sylar. It's something that is going to strike a chord and be close to Peter, what this big obstacle in the road is...[because] it's a threat to everybody; it's a threat to everything.

I'm not going to say it's four horsemen or one horseman, but there's gonna be a power that comes in that everybody has to kind of band together to make sure it doesn't run wild."

Milo Ventimiglia and Hayden Panettier are opening up about season three of Heroes.

Back Together: Panettiere said the original cast will be sharing lots of screen time: "A lot of us are working much more closely together - the main cast - which I think is what the audience missed about the second season, and I think what we missed about the second season...that we didn't really get the chance to work with each other. We're all crossing paths this season." Can I get a hell yes?

A New Peter? Milo shared a huge clue about Peter's storyline when the show resumes:

"The one thing I can say is that Peter's not quite himself this season...In the second season, Peter lost himself, and in the first season Peter was fighting himself, and in the third season, when I say Peter's not quite himself, he's not quite himself."

Hayden Panettiere showed off a new hairstyle during an evening out in Beverly Hills last night.

What do you think of the look? Love it or loathe it?

In a recent New York Times article, creator Tim Kring says fans will see a rebooted, improved series.

“A little absence can really be a benefit,” Kring said, to the newspaper, citing other “eventlike shows” like The Sopranos that have rebounded from long gaps between seasons. In the intervening months, he said, viewers “have seen a lot of stuff on TV that wasn’t of the quality of Heroes. I think they’ll be raring to go.”

Regarding the criticism the show was faced with last season, Kring added:

“The double-edged sword of our fan base is they have a passion for the show. And that passion cuts both ways. It cuts towards, ‘You’re the greatest thing ever’ and towards ‘You’ve disappointed me.’”

In closing, Kring said season three will start fresh.

“We are not dragging a lot of story behind us,” he said. “It you started cold, I think you could pick up the thread. That is the goal from here on out."

As most Heroes fans know by now, Zachary Quinto will be trading in Sylar for Spock next spring, as he takes on this iconic role in J.J. Abrams new Star Trek movie. It's coming out on May 8, 2009.

"I really felt like my relationship to the character was specific to the text I was playing and to the world in which the character is being created right now, this time," Quinto recently said in an interview at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, California.

"So I didn't feel beholden to [original Spock portrayer Leonard Nimoy], other than to honor the origins of what he created, obviously. But I think the whole project was based in that philosophy, so it wasn't a problem."

As for the earlier poster of him in costume, as seen above?

"I think it looks great," Quinto said. "I think the colors look really great. And, you know, I think it's a hearkening of what's to come. ... I think it's going to be really cool."

We set a record for entries with this week's Heroes Caption Contest.

Thank you to everyone that submitted a response. The winner, however, is "cylonagent." This user submitted a caption that made us laugh due to its reference to one of the best known Zoolander quotes.

Remember to come back and play this game every week!

And now, presenting...Blue Steel!