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"Origins" and Endings: NBC Puts "Heroes" Spin-off on Hold

The potential writers strike has already claimed its first victim: NBC's planned Heroes spin-off, Heroes: Origins.

The six-episode series, which was supposed to launch this spring during Heroes' sophomore hiatus, has been shelved indefinitely as NBC has decided not to move ahead with production.

The possible explanation may be fear over the strike, which could derail production; it's thought that any unproduced projects may be shelved over the new few weeks.

Heroes: Origins had secured a number of A-list talents to write and direct installments, including Kevin Smith, Michael Dougherty, co-writer on X2 and Superman Returns, and Hostel writer/director Eli Roth. Each episode was intended to introduce a new character to the Heroes mythos, which viewers would have a vote in determining which one(s) would make join the cast in Season Three.

Project is said to be on hold but could be resurrected down the road, should the writers strike be averted, as doubtful as that seems right now.

Comments

The CineManiac said…
This is sad news as I was looking forward to the anthology series, with some top notch talent attached.
I was also hoping they could snatch Joss Whedon away from film to do an episode, but it looks like I'm getting something better than that with Dollhouse.
Anonymous said…
Perhaps the real reason they're not doing it is because a third season now isn't assured. Most of the folks I know (and Entertainment Weekly seems to agree) think this season has been awful. Ratings are down, too, right?
Anonymous said…
Anon, it's possible but not probable. I think the show is complete claptrap so I don't care one way or another but ratings are definitely sinking fast, even with KB on the show.
The CineManiac said…
I still love Heroes and really don't see what all the "It's horrible, let's stop watching" is all about.
Hero's story is comedic and fun, Yes Peter's Amnesia is lame, but the mystery of Matt's dad and Kristen's character and The Company are all great.
S Broggie said…
I love Heroes so I'm glad to say that it's going nowhere. The original cast have contracts that guarantee it's existence for at least a few more seasons. Falling ratings are directly attributable to DVRs. I always record and watch my favs later. i.e. 30 Rock, The Office, Heroes, all shows that have huge followings but don't appear on the Nielson radar. The show is excellent, blame the explosion of DVR usage for falling ratings.
Page48 said…
If "Heroes" ratings have been slipping, it's because the writers wasted 1/3 of the season boring the crap out of faithful viewers with the who-cares story of Hiro and Sark in 17th century Japan. Aiding and abetting in the ratings swoon would be, in no particular order:

-the Mexican brother/sister team, forcing us to read even more captioning than we previously enjoyed
-lack of interaction between regular characters: Peter and Hiro are the chief culprits
-lack of any meaningful storyline involving the cheerleader: they saved her, now what?
-lack of the evil Sylar
-lack of purpose: last year it was "save the cheerleader, save the world", this year...??????
-lack of any advancement of the story as a whole, aka wheel spinning

On a brighter note, the most recent episode (Nov. 19) showed noticeable improvement, but now NBC is advertising "only 2 episodes left".

All things considered, Season 2 of "Heroes" has been a real test of viewer loyalty.

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