Heroes is coming back this fall with an expanded third-season opener, reports IAN SPELLING at SCI FI WIRE.
"On Monday, Sept. 15, we'll kick off with a
Heroes clip show to try to bring back the audience and [then air] a massive two-hour
Heroes film,"
Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, told advertisers in New York on April 2.
Season Three will be a total of twenty episodes, with the back ten to begin in February 2009.
But Silverman confirmed that the heavily hyped, much-anticipated spinoff,
Heroes: Origins, has been scrapped.
Originally conceived to help eliminate
Heroes repeats,
Origins had lined up directors and writers--including feature-film vets
Kevin Smith, Eli Roth and
Michael Dougherty--before NBC dropped the idea.
The abbreviated Season Two generally is considered far inferior to One, and the hastily-prepared December finale necessitated by the Writers' Strike was considered (even by creator
Tim Kring) to be a mercy killing.
"
Heroes could well be the show that the writers' strike actually ended up helping," wrote SIMON BREW at DEN OF GEEK!
But things still could get worse before getting better. In February, the Screen Actors Guild hinted that there is potential for a strike when member contracts expire June 31.
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