Heroes Returns; Origins Dies

Heroes will return to NBC on Sept. 15 with an expanded third-season opener, but network executives confirmed that the proposed prequel spinoff, Heroes: Origins, is officially dead.

"We consciously chose to rest [Heroes] this spring so that [creator] Tim Kring and his team could get ahead of the creative and build up to a massive event--a three-hour Heroes night," Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, said during the network's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on April 2. "On Monday, Sept. 15, we'll kick off with a Heroes clip show to try to bring back the audience and [then air] a massive two-hour Heroes film."

Silverman also explained why the heavily hyped, much-anticipated Heroes: Origins was scrapped. The show was originally conceived to help eliminate Heroes repeats, and directors and writers--including feature-film vets Kevin Smith, Eli Roth and Michael Dougherty--were already lined up before NBC dropped the idea.

"We were taxing our creative team to do too much around that," Silverman said. "We wanted 35 Heroes [episodes] and 12 Heroes: Origins, each of which was supposed to be a mini-movie and backdoor pilot. We reached far and challenged our people, and we decided it was better to focus on keeping the Heroes mothership as strong as possible."