http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/arts/story.html?id=1ab5e271-f7ba-43eb-8790-12ccbf3229e4
New characters to spice up Heroes Second season of the series won't take any breaks, the show's creator says Alex Strachan, CanWest News Service Published: Friday, September 21, 2007 HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Tim Kring is a little light on intel about the second season of his geek-tastic creation Heroes, but that comes with the territory. He was swamped by fanboys and fangirls at Comic-Con in San Diego in July, and he didn't crack under pressure then - except to reveal that Dominican actress Dania Ramirez, familiar to connoisseurs of geek chic as one of the sirens from last summer's movie X-Men: The Last Stand, will join the cast as Maya Herrera. According to Heroes's second-season program notes, Herrera is a young woman "plagued by a threatening ability that has driven both her and her twin brother Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz) from their home in the Dominican Republic to . . . the U.S. in search of help." Press the series creator a little harder, and some other details emerge. Veronica Mars's Kristen Bell will appear in a recurring role, beginning with the fifth episode, as a mysterious siren, Elle, with cryptic ties to the Petrelli and Bennet families. The new season will incorporate storylines based in Egypt, Haiti, Mexico, Ireland, Lithuania and the Ukraine, in addition to the U.S. and of course Japan, where, in May's season-ending cliffhanger, Masi Oka's character, Hiro, found himself trapped in time, back in the 16th century and facing bushido blade-wielding characters straight out of an Akira Kurosawa samurai epic. Mention that season finale - and some of the more lacklustre reviews for the final chapter in what was one of last season's few TV Cinderella tales - and Kring is apt to take on a slightly pained demeanour. Heroes is unusual in that it tapped into the mainstream audience, and not just the comics crowd. It was one of Global and NBC's highest-rated dramas last season and was nominated for a best drama Emmy. "I don't read a lot of the Internet chatter," Kring said, taking a break between scenes on Heroes's main soundstage at Sunset Gower Studios, the former home of Columbia Pictures. "I'm never 100-per-cent satisfied with anything I do, but I was pretty pleased that we were able to wrap up that much story and give ourselves enough of a blank slate to start Season 2 with." Heroes will air more or less consecutively through April, after which a spinoff prequel, Heroes: Origins, will take over for six weeks. Directing one of Origins's episodes will be fanboy Kevin Smith. Heroes took a bit of a ratings tumble last season after taking a pair of ill-advised breaks. They seemed like a good idea at the time, breaking the season into three discernable chapters. That's not how it worked out, however, which is why Kring will make every effort to tell the story all the way through this time, with no break except for Christmas and New Year's. Heroes was not the only serialized drama to suffer a ratings drop due to a midseason break: Jericho and Lost both suffered dramatic dives. Like Hiro, if Kring had a chance to do it all over again, he might go about it a little differently. "In hindsight, for this kind of show, I think being off the air for seven weeks was a little too much." Season 2 of Heroes premieres Monday on Global and NBC.
