It seems like yesterday that Heroes aired on our TV screens and became one of the most-watched American superhero drama series. The NBC TV series would become one of its most successful in that decade. Heroes premiered on September 25, 2006, and kept us glued until its last episode on February 8, 2010.
All through its 77 episodes, spread across 4 seasons, we saw different superhero characters come and go. With its long cast list, the series became one of America’s primetime TV series with a large cast.
The show’s storyline follows the individual stories of everyday, ordinary people who slowly discover they have superhuman abilities. Each of them must come together to stop a catastrophic futuristic event.
Towards the end of 2015, a 13 episode miniseries, Heroes Reborn, was released. However, to stay nostalgic about the original show, here are some of the top cast that gave life to the series’ characters.
Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia)
Credit: Heroes
One of the most significant characters in Milo Ventimiglia’s television acting career has got to be Peter Petrelli. Peter Petrelli is one of the show’s protagonists and has a unique superpower that allows him to take on the powers of anyone close to him. As a result, throughout the series, Peter manifests a wider range of superhuman abilities than any other character.
Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere)
Credit: Heroes
Hayden Panettiere gave life to the character Claire Bennet. Hayden Panettiere may not be an A-list celebrity by Hollywood standards, but she has had a successful acting career. In Heroes, her character Claire has the superhuman ability to regenerate.
Claire Bennet is able to recover from injuries and even amputations. With the gift stemming from her cells, she’s also unable to contract diseases or get drunk. However, she’s not immune to the pain from accidents.
Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka)
Credit: Heroes
Masi Oka is the face of Hiro Nakamura, a character that made him a familiar face on TV screens. His superhuman ability is being able to control the space-time continuum. This means he’s able to project himself forward in time or backward, slow and pause time. As he had more understanding of his powers, he could also teleport with things and people close to him.
Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar)
Credit: Heroes
Nathan Petrelli is the pretty face of the series. He’s an older brother of Peter Petrelli and a congressional candidate. His superhuman ability is flight. Although he’s got one of the coolest abilities, Nathan hardly shows it off for fear he might be seen.
As a politician, this can affect his chances of staying in power. But, then, there’s also the fear he might be shipped away and hidden for scientific and experimental research. Nathan Petrelli’s character is played by the established actor Adrian Pasdar.
Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg)
Credit: Heroes
For a few fans, Matt Parkman’s superhuman ability is the coolest. His telepathic ability allows him to read minds and also push suggestions in people’s minds to compel them to do things. At the beginning of the series, Matt Parkman worked as an LAPD officer. His superhuman ability was an asset in cracking cases. Greg Grunberg played the gentle, rational-thinking character of Matt Parkman.
Gabriel Gray/Sylar (Zachary Quinto)
Credit: Heroes
Sylar is the main antagonist in the series. As Gabriel Gray, he fixes watches and clocks, but only as a result of his ability to understand complex systems. In a search for deeper understanding, he becomes fixated on understanding how other superheroes’ powers work.
This puts Sylar on the dark path of hunting and killing other superheroes to take on their powers. Zachary Quinto did justice with the Sylar character. Portraying a dark, emotionless character seeking to usurp all powers for himself.
Noah Bennet/HRG (Jack Coleman)
Credit: Heroes
Noah Bennet leaves viewers torn between loving and hating him. At first, he takes on the appearance of an average man who works at Primatech Paper Company with a wife and two kids. Beneath this façade is a trained associate of the Company whose job is to hunt down superheroes.
He may be judged a hypocrite for having a superhuman daughter, Claire. However, we can all agree he has an undying love for his family. Jack Coleman plays Noah Bennet in the series, and it’s hard to think of a face to pull the role successfully.
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