'Heroes Reborn' Enters 'Brave New World'

09.27.2015

Heroes is reborn, and in the world-building obsessed landscape of TV, that means more than just the TV show has returned.

In addition to Heroes Reborn, which premiered last night to solid ratings, NBC has eventized the premiere with a 6-part prequel web series "Dark Matters," an app, and 9th Wonders, a fan portal where creators can connect with fans not only through social media, but by dispensing clues and behind the scenes information.

The latest salvo in NBC's series launch of Heroes Reborn came Friday, Sept. 25, with the debut of Heroes Reborn Event Series - Book 1: Brave New World, the first eBook in a six novel series tying into the Heroes universe. Published by Bastei Lübbe AG, Brave New World is written by David Bishop (Judge Dredd) and is a joint multi-platform venture with Heroes creator Tim Kring's Imperative Entertainment that also includes audio book versions of each novella.

Brave New World is a novelization of the original drafts of the Heroes Reborn pilot screenplay that blends classic fan-favorite Heroes characters with all-new characters introduced in the miniseries.

"It's an extended, Easter egg, deleted scenes version of the pilot," said David Bishop.

Due to time and budgetary constraints, there are at least half a dozen scenes cut from the pilot that find their way into Brave New World.

"If it was just like: 'here's what you just watched on TV,' well why bother to read the book? That seems a bit pointless. If it's got something we haven't seen yet, it adds an extra element and gives people imperative to check it out," said Bishop.

And it does, offering fans the opportunity to get into the head of the enigmatic HRG, who plays a big role in the book and Heroes Reborn.

Will HRG, the Haitian and the characters fans used to love still make a mark? Just five years after Heroes ended, Heroes Reborn finds itself in a much different TV landscape, one it helped form.

"When Heroes came along, the superhero TV series had kind of gone. It was almost like an 80s-90s phenomenon. Heroes brought it back. Superheroes were getting big in movies again, but hadn't really crossed over into TV successfully. Heroes was really ahead of the curve," said Bishop.

Now, of course, new superhero shows are announced seemingly every day, forcing NBC to get creative to compete.

"The proliferation of superhero TV shows has really raised the bar," said Bishop. "They've got a really big challenge on their hands to come up with a new attack."

NBC's attack is a 13 episode event series, the latest entry in a growing trend, and an advantage that Heroes didn't have last go-round.

"It enables them to do what I think is really smart: the idea of telling stories in volumes, like a graphic novel. Each episode is like your floppy comic you get once a month, except here it's weekly and you can get the big collection at the end. You can binge watch the whole thing, so it's a complete story," said Bishop. "That sort of Netflix, HBO and AMC sensibility has helped them immeasurably to shape the season and the story that they're telling."

Due to Heroes Reborn's multi-stranded storytelling and large ensemble, the series fits naturally with today's TV audiences.

"It's a slow burn kind of storytelling that pays off over time," said Bishop. "Heroes is probably better binge watched than it is on a weekly basis," said Bishop. NBC obviously hopes it's not just DVR'd, and got the ball rolling with a two-parter last Thursday night.

It's good to be back. Watch the epic premiere of #HeroesReborn on the NBC App. https://t.co/igt8Iyu5wL

- Heroes Reborn (@heroes) September 25, 2015

Heroes Reborn can be seen in the cynical lens as another reboot, another attempt at franchising, but that's the reality, and it's a reaction to audience demand, Bishop says.

"You've seen that spin-offing and the franchising in other places. The CSI's up the wazoo, NCIS: Albuquerque and all of those," said Bishop.

"Serialized storytelling comes from that idea of telling stories beyond what's available, because there's an appetite for it from the audience," said Bishop. "It's not so much 'if you build it, they will come.' It's 'they're already here. You better build them something extra because they're hungry.'"

NBC hopes Heroes Reborn can feed audiences in this brave new world of TV programming.

"The days of the standalone procedural series where each episode is standalone and nothing ever happens and the characters are the same every week [are over]. That's fine if you're doing The Simpsons, but in drama, audience expectations are higher these days," said Bishop.

"There's going to be something like 400 different dramas in the next year. That's bonkers," said Bishop. "Unsurprisingly, studios are going to struggle coming up with 400 original ideas, so they'll look to do brand extensions."

And while that's what Brave New World is, it's a fun one, the first in a franchise-building initiative cooked up to feed the insatiable hunger of fans for more content.

Brave New World can be purchased on Amazon for $2.99.

On October 25, NBC is offering fans an exclusive, limited free eBook download on Amazon for one day only.

In the meantime, Heroes Reborn airs every Thursday on NBC at 8/7c.