It was almost a year ago when it was announced that film director Kevin Smith would write and direct the first episode of Heroes: Origins.  The idea behind the six-episode spin-off was to allow big name creators the chance to play around in the Heroes universe.  Each episode would have introduced a new hero, and if any of them had been particularly popular they may have transitioned to the original series.  Despite the fact that directors such as Smith, Eli Roth, and Michael Dougherty were already signed on, NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman recently announced that the idea has been scrapped.

While fans may never get to see Origins, they'll still have plenty of Heroes.  The show will return in July with new online webisodes, then return for its third season in September  with a two-hour movie that Silverman describes as "massive."

Why did Origins bite the dust?  "We were taxing our creative team to do too much around that,” Silverman explained.  "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."

While I agree that the behind-the-scenes team deserves a break, I'm upset to see Origins get axed before it even had a chance.  I really wanted to see what some big name Hollywood talent could do if they were allowed to play in the Heroes sandbox.  Hour-long episodes from Kevin Smith and Eli Roth would have been extremely interesting to see, which makes the entire thing a missed opportunity.

As for the original series, it'll return on Monday, September 15 with a one-hour clip show followed by the two-hour premiere.  "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," Silverman said.

If you can't wait until September to get your Heroes fix, you can check out NBC.com in July for some exciting webisodes based on the series.  The network has already produced these online clips for shows like The Office, and this year they're adding Heroes, 30 Rock, and Chuck to the mix as well.  That should be just enough to tide fans over until the fall.


- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: HeroestheSeries.com
(Image courtesy of NBC)