Saturday afternoon at New York Comic Con, “Heroes” star Milo Ventimiglia stopped by the CBR Tiki Room for a video interview with Jonah Weiland to be posted on CBR later this week. Of the many topics covered, Ventimiglia spoke about the cancellation of “Heroes”, and NBC’s ultimate decision not to wrap up the series with a television special.

Jonah Weiland: We were big supporters of “Heroes” on CBR. I can’t let you get away without two questions on that at least. It’s disappointing that NBC didn’t let you guys wrap it up in some way. I know Tim has talked about that. How do you feel about it? Are you disappointed?

Milo Ventimiglia: You know what? It’s one of those things where being on a TV show, you always have to be ready that they’ll give you the can. If you’re expecting that you’re going to get a courtesy of an end episode, I kind of think you’re being a bit delusional, to be honest. I remember during the first season, we were sitting at an Emmy panel, and there was a whole bunch of us on stage. Somebody asked us about catching this lightning in a bottle and how exciting it was, and I was the only person who raised my hand and said, “Look, the reality is the show will get canceled.” Everybody was looking at me cross-eyed, like, “You’re crazy! Don’t say it!” But that’s reality. So if we’re hoping for that and we wanted to tell the story, if we didn’t get to tell a story, then it should have been in the series.

For me, I actually look at the progression of the show and I look at that fourth season and that very last episode, and I’m like, “You know what? I’m quietly satisfied.” Do I wish we could have had a little more time? Of course. You’re never going to get what you wish for. You gotta go with the reality of the situation. Hey, it is what it is.

I’ve got to say that that writer’s strike really hurt many shows on TV, and I think it hurt you guys, unfortunately.

You know, I think it hurt the kind of television business, but at the same time, it’s one of those unfortunate circumstances that, for me, I think it hurt a lot of individuals in the business. I’m not talking about writers; writers make very nice livings. So do actors and directors. I’m talking about crews. I think it really crippled the town. And not just the crew, but the vendors. Think about the guys who run the dry cleaners that cleaned all of the wardrobe on all of the different shows, and now their business is cut from let’s just say a hundred units, and now they have two. I thought it was unfortunate. I wish that strike would have been orchestrated better, but again, I’m not a [guild] president, I’m just a member. I’m a grunt on the battlefield. Hey, we do our best.

Now that you’ve played in comics, and ["Heroes" creator] Tim Kring has talked about the possibility of continuing the story in comics, is that something you would want to be involved in, or are you really more focused on your own comics?

I want to do my own stuff. To be frank, we were never involved with the comic book version of “Heroes.” Use our image on the cover to sell some books, but nobody ever came to us and said, “Hey, do you have a story to tell?” Not once. Me, I like doing my own thing. I have plenty of creative friends and a really great company and a good form to tell the stories that we want to tell. The thing is for me, everybody feels I’ve got this legitimacy in the comic book world because of “Heroes,” but I’ve been reading comics since I was 8 years old. For me, now I’m giving back to the community, it’s a little different than someone saying, “Oh, you’re legit, you’re kind of a magnet into this world because you were on a TV show that dabbled in that comic arena.” I knew who Jeph Loeb was before I sat down to dinner with him and he was like, “Yeah, I’m going to be writing ‘Heroes.’” And I was like, “Awesome! This is cool!” [laughs]

Heroes alums Masi Oka (Hiro) and Jack Coleman (Noah “Horn-Rimmed Glasses” Bennet) have landed fun new gigs on CBS procedurals, both as characters named Max. “I’m playing an odd little man named Max Bergman,” says Hawaii Five-0 addition Masi, who’ll begin recurring in Episode 4. “He’s brilliant at two things — being the Honolulu medical examiner and playing the piano, which he does in his autopsy-room office to help him think.”

Meanwhile, on The Mentalist, Jack pops up on October 14 as a wealthy, arrogant murder suspect named Max Winter. “The man who murdered my wife is himself murdered,” reveals Jack, suspecting his character “could conceivably have a fairly profound effect on Patrick Jane [Simon Baker], who lost his own wife and daughter.”

Had Heroes continued for one final arc, Masi tells me fans would have seen a brutal bloodbath. “They were going to end everyone’s stories by bumping off one character every week,” says Masi, who has remained closest to Milo Ventimiglia, Adrian Pasdar and Zachary Quinto. “A ‘Ten Little Indians’ thing was very much a possibility,” seconds Jack. “Based on the execution — no pun intended — it could have been brilliant. Or not.”

Heroes may have ended, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get your superheroes fix from the show. Get a sneak peek of the Season 4 DVD extras, which include an interview with Milo Ventimiglia about growing up as comic-book fan, Zachary Quinto recalling his audition for Sylar, and a behind-the-scenes look at how Jack Coleman’s flooded car scene was made.

(click the pic below, scroll down, hit the first video

It seemed inevitable but the news is nonetheless shocking: NBC’s drama Heroes won’t be back for a fifth season. The beleaguered drama only averaged 6.5 million viewers this year. It last aired on Feb. 8, when it only brought in a mere 4.4 million.

The show never managed to recapture those stellar ratings from its critically-beloved first season, when it averaged a whopping 14.5 million. There has been talk that NBC may air a movie that allows the producers to wrap up the story, but nothing has been set in stone.

Source

It looks like NBC might do the one thing Sylar never could: eliminate the “Heroes.”

According to New York Magazine there are indications that “Heroes” will not be brought back for a fifth season. While there have been rumors that “Heroes” would return with 13 new episodes to wrap up the series, the latest report indicates that NBC is very happy with their upcoming programming slate and notes that the network has already placed orders for five new series in the fall.

However, the report also indicates that “Heroes” might return as a two or four-hour movie to give the fans of the series some closure. Although it also mentions that NBC has yet to bring up this possibility to “Heroes” creator Tim Kring.

“Heroes” debuted on NBC in 2006 with impressive ratings and featured Milo Ventimiglia, Greg Grunberg, Adrian Pasdar, Hayden Panettiere, Masi Oka, Leonard Roberts and Ali Larter as ordinary people who suddenly found themselves gifted with extraordinary superpowers.

However, the audience began to erode during the second season and continued to fall in subsequent seasons for a variety of reasons. Earlier this year, Kring spoke out about the creative difficulties “Heroes” encountered due to network interference.

“It becomes very hard to kill off certain characters,” said Kring. “The network has a very strong say in this, because of actors who are under contract and do publicity for them. It’s not just up to the writers to decide.”

As an example, Splash Page examined the many deaths of Nathan Petrelli on “Heroes,” when Adrian Pasdar left the series last fall. The final fate of “Heroes” will be revealed when NBC unveils its fall schedule later this month.

Source: MTV.com

I’m hearing that NBC might give Heroes a short order of 6 to just finish up the storyline of the series next fall. Or else it’s a goner. In any case, there’s zero chance of a 13- or 22-episode pickup.

6:20 PM UPDATE: Now I hear NBC will decide on 3 possible futures for Heroes, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. The most unlikely scenario is a 13-episode order for midseason. (Creator Tim Kring is hoping for this scenario, of course.) A real possibility is that NBC cancels it altogether. But I’m told odds are best that NBC announces “some kind of climactic finale” for Heroes lasting 2- or even 4-episodes (back to back, over one- or two-nights) to air in midseason.

Even though Heroes’ ratings are weak, it is a profitable show for NBC. It brings in the highest international sales of any of NBC’s primetime series. It’s the No. 1 most downloaded show overseas. Plus, it’s a huge DVD seller both domestic and internationally. “What it’s up against is that NBC’s new team is trying to rebrand the network and give it a fresh look with new shows from J.J. Abrams, Jerry Bruckheimer, and David E Kelley,” an insider tells me. “Heroes doesn’t fit in with that. But Heroes is a big brand by itself.” If no decision is made tomorrow, then it’s possible NBC may wait to decide the show’s future after upfronts.

Source: Deadline.com

Milo Ventimiglia Web is still here, but there was no Heroes episode last monday =( so here is a bit of an overview of what happend at the end of the volume, Thanks to Seattle Pi! No new airdate has been confirmed yet.

If Heroes’ previous season finales have taught viewers anything, it’s that they can expect to see most of the superpowered good guys come together to bring down the villain.

Robert Knepper, who plays this season’s power-hungry, carnival-leading baddie, Samuel, promises more of the same in Monday’s Season 4 send-off. But for Samuel, it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy.

“Samuel never went up to Hiro [Masi Oka] and Peter [Milo Ventimiglia] and said, ‘You’re going to work for me.’ He made them realize something about themselves that they needed to realize and hopefully they would thank Samuel,” Knepper tells TVGuide.com. “There was this manipulative approach that didn’t work out how he wanted it to work out. In the end, he’s going to say ‘ … I’m going to get you back. I’m going to show you my true colors — you’re now working for me.’ And if they don’t, there’s going to be a price to pay.”

Claire Bennett (Hayden Panettiere) and her father (Jack Coleman) have already gotten a taste of what Samuel’s willing to do: The most recent episode ended with them locked in a trailer and buried alive 50 feet underground. Coleman says it doesn’t look good for Noah (aka HRG), but he and Claire will get to work out some of their problems.

“I think part of Samuel’s evil plot is to have Claire watch HRG die, because his lungs will obviously collapse on him as the oxygen diminishes and hers will keep regenerating,” Coleman says. “So, it’s a pretty sticky wicket, but in the finale there are some pretty sweet scenes between the two of them that should be pretty touching. Even though there’s been strain throughout the season, it never got to the point of ‘I hate you and never want to see you again.’ It was always mitigated by a sense of love, and the two of them have always been able to overcome their issues.”

Heroes: Will Hiro and Charlie meet again?

So what brings the rest of the heroes to the party? Hiro still has a score to settle with Samuel for trapping his long lost love Charlie (Jayma Mays) somewhere in the time-space continuum. And Peter and Sylar (Zachary Quinto) are on a mission to prevent Emma (Deanne Bray), who’s currently in Samuel’s care, from killing thousands as Peter’s vision has predicted.

“The people who had been aligned before all of a sudden might not be,” Coleman says. “Hiro gets to have some sort of closure with the character of Charlie, and there’s a very interesting bookend to the first episode of this volume involving Tracy [Ali Larter] and water.”

As for Peter and Sylar, Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) stands in the way of them saving the day. Even though Peter freed Sylar from being trapped in his own nightmare, Grunberg says Parkman is still the gatekeeper.

Robert Knepper lets us inside the head of Heroes’ new villain

“Parkman is really in control of who is going to be able to affect the ultimate outcome,” Grunberg says. “[In their minds], they’ve experienced three years, and Sylar has redeemed himself in the eyes of Peter. But for Parkman, it’s been 30 minutes and he says, ‘You’re not going anywhere.’

“Parkman’s gone a little loopy and a little dark,” Grunberg continues. “Over four years of the show, there’s all this mistrust. So, Parkman has finally taken this into my own hands. It’s very clear that he can control anybody he wants. He’s really the guy who’s holding the cards and he’s more powerful than anybody ever anticipated.”

Watch previews for the Heroes finale in our Online Video Guide

As for hard details about how the drama unfolds, the cast is characteristically mum. Coleman only says that Claire plays a pivotal role. “Obviously, there is a showdown with Samuel,” Coleman says. “But at the very end is Claire sort of blowing the lid off everything. … If you go back to the pilot and how we first met [Claire] — jumping off the oil rig and resetting her shoulder and talking into the camera — there’s a bit of harkening back to that but with much larger implications. So, that would kick off the next volume.”

But will there be a next volume? Ratings for the oft-criticized show have slid to all-time lows for the series. However, NBC’s schedule is wide open in light of the network’s recent late-night woes. Coleman says the volume’s end has a certain finality to it, but he would like the chance to more adequately wrap up the characters’ arcs.

Grunberg is more emphatic. “I cannot imagine this as our series finale,” he says. “People will be incredibly disappointed. They will be pleased with the end of the volume, but as a series finale, it’s not even close. That’s what gives me hope.”

What do you want to see in the Heroes finale? Are you hoping for another season?

 

I added the screencaps for Mondays Heroes episode 419: Brave New World. Enjoy.

Links:
- 419: Brave New World