When Heroes Reborn was first announced, we were told that the story would focus on an entirely new cast of characters. Of course, as the months went on we found out that just wasn’t to be the case, with the likes of Jack Coleman (Noah Bennet), Masi Oka (Hiro Nakumura) and Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman) announced as being set to reprise their roles. One major character from the original Heroes run notable by her absence, however, was Claire Bennet – the cheerleader played by Hayden Panettiere that was so integral to the first season’s story.
While speaking to EW, the show’s creator Tim Kring revealed that there’s a very good reason why Claire is not returning: she’s pushing up daisies!
“In the real world of the story, [her character Claire Bennet] died a year prior to our story starting. That gets into some of the mythology that’s attached to the original show.”
Though he doesn’t confirm this, it’s likely that Claire perished in the terrorist attack in Odessa that sets the plot of Heroes Reborn in motion, giving her father Noah a good reason to put those horn rimmed glasses back on and try to get to the bottom of what happened.
Because Heroes took a major dip in quality as it went on, it can be easy to forget just how great that first season was. Hopefully Kring and co. can recapture some of that magic when Heroes Reborn premieres as a two-hour event on Thursday, Sept. 24 from 8 to 10 p.m. ET on NBC.
