EDITORIAL - What next for the Heroes?

As a massive fan of Heroes, I was gutted when I heard it was canceled. But with news from Tim Kring that all loose ends will be tied up in some way: the question is how?

My article will look at how they could tie up the season and just end it. But it will also look at how they could continue the franchise in the future (I'd much prefer a new season in a few years!).

First, we need to look at why the show got canceled. I think one of the reasons it failed was that it changed. The concept for the show was ORDINARY people with EXTRAORDINARY abilities. The show originally dealt with the personal issues of the Heroes, and how they used their powers to deal with them. Over the seasons they've sort of fallen off that path, and gone into pretty silly territory (The Carnival).

Also I want to say the idea of the Heroes being revealed to the world is stupid. Wasn't that always the tension in the show? When Nathan almost revealed it and got shot. When Arthur plans to isolate the gene to sell abilities to people? The idea of people finding out the Heroes was always one of the most dramatic ideas of the seasons, and if that is lost then there's a lot of excitement gone. I'll go into how they can avoid this in a bit.

There are several ways to just end the franchise. Books. A Movie. A Miniseries. It's unlikely the Heroes will be revealed to the world and everybody just goes, 'Oh ok', and they live happily ever after. There will be fear-mongers and hatred towards the Heroes. A miniseries could show Bennett working with the government to help integrate the Heroes into society. It will probably just show the Heroes being alienated and hunted by everybody else, ending with a little glimmer of hope they'll be okay. The Heroes have already been hunted in the past, so I don't think treading old territory is a good idea.

A "Heroes" movie could be good. As characters like Mohinder and Matt have kind of ended their story arcs, it's easier to add new characters to the universe to create a little more interest without overcrowding the movie. The film could go the way of "X-Men," with another hero coming forward and claiming they are better than humans. This could be really good. We could see Peter, Hiro, and Sylar, and the others form a sort of team to fight this group and win the trust of humans. Books could easily go on forever exploring different characters throughout the new Hero-friendly world.


What I REALLY want to see is a new series that diverts from the Heroes being discovered. They could leave the franchise for five years, and come back with a new series and new Heroes, but tie it back to what happened. My idea is this: The press team is murdered, and their footage destroyed immediately after Claire reveals her ability. Crazy, you may say, but hear me out. The new season starts with a journalist who survived the massacre, hunting down the person who killed his fellow journalist and wife. He eventually tracks down Bennett, who reveals the killer:

There are two possible scenarios that I can think, with two different killers:

ANGELA.
She dreams of the world finding out about Heroes, and sets about creating a team to stop the disaster. Micah is used to turn off all the lights, and destroy the footage. The Haitian is also used to stop anyone from using their powers. Finally, a new villain is revealed that Angela has history with after he was captured and detained in the past. His powers could be anything, but the main idea is that he murders all of the press (excluding the one reporter) and a few of the heroes. This not only gives us a new psycho-villain, but as some of the other Heroes are killed off, we have more space for new ones in the new series. One problem is the time --does Angela have the time to put all this together?

SYLAR.
From the FUTURE. He has lived for five years fighting his hunger for the greater good, but all the time is being attacked and mistreated by the public for his ability. He finally snaps, and goes on a murderous rampage and kills several heroes to gain new powers - including heroes - and travels back to the Carnival to stop the reveal. I prefer this because Sylar will always be THE Heroes villain - Linderman or Samuel had nothing on him. This can go on to future Sylar telling present Sylar he cannot fight his hunger. Eventually he will become his true self again. This creates a new story arc for our Sylar: should he give in to destiny, or fight it for as long as he can? Sylar should also kill a few of the Heroes.

I'd like to see Claire killed. She's become boring. If she's killed, this gives Bennett a new 'revenge' story arc where he can team up with the vengeful Journalist. Obviously, they'd both get owned by Sylar.

What do you guys think? You know the drill.

After these A-Level exams I'm going to start writing Fan-Fic. And Heroes Season five is top of my list. So if you're interested, check back in a few weeks for Episode One ;D