EW claim that NBC aren't going to greenlight a TV movie for axed superhero drama
Heroes. The show was cancelled in May at the end of its fourth season, amidst low ratings and a loss of critical acclaim. Creator
Tim Kring was initially confident Heroes could properly conclude with a feature-length TV movie, but his optimism has gradually eroded, and it doesn't help that several of the core cast members have already moved on to new projects...
Masi Oka (cherubic Hiro) has a recurring role as a coroner in the Hawaii Five-O remake;
Ali Larter (sexy Tracy) is heavily pregnant;
Greg Grunberg (telepath Matt) has joined rom-com series Love Bites;
Milo Ventimiglia (somnambulant Peter) has signed up for Xavier Gens' apocalyptic thriller The Divide;
Hayden Panettiere (cheerleader Claire) is currently filming Scream 4 and lined up for The Black Hole remake; and
Zachary Quinto (brain-slurping Sylar) is filming banking crisis drama Margin Call with Kevin Spacey and Paul Bettany. While not
impossible to fit a Heroes reunion into their schedules, it would obviously be a logistical nightmare now the actors aren't under contract with NBC. I'm sure the goodwill is there for everyone to regroup for a proper send-off, but I doubt it can be organized. Many geek-friendly TV shows that get cancelled have a period where fans are led to believe the show might come back, but it rarely happens. The only two recent success I can think of are
Firefly (resurrected as big-screen movie
Serenity) and Jericho (which came back after an inventive fan campaign, only to be definitively axed soon after). On a mildly positive side, Kring has mentioned how the Heroes universe
might continue in other forms of media -- such as a web-series, comic-book, or novels -- but it looks increasingly unlikely a full-on TV special will be made to bring closure to the show. Kring himself recently pitched NBC a drama called
III, about a fictional invasion of America by a foreign country, but that appears to have fallen through. He's currently working on interactive web content for Nokia mobile phones. What do you make of this news? Should NBC stump up the cash for a TV movie, considering the show's successful DVD sales? Is there no chance it'll be back, now the cast have moved on? Is Kring just talking crap, to keep Heroes alive in the minds of a diminished fanbase he can sell tie-in comic-books to one day? Did you stop watching Heroes years ago, so don't care either way?