Conception Heroes began development early in 2006, when
Tim Kring, creator of NBC's
Crossing Jordan, came up with the show's concept. Kring wanted to create a "large
ensemble saga" that would connect with the audience. He began thinking about how big, scary and complicated he felt the world is, and wanted to create a character-driven series about people who could do something about it. Kring felt that a cop or medical drama did not have characters that were big enough to save the world. He came up with the thought of
superheroes; ordinary people who would discover extraordinary abilities, while still rooted in the real world and in reality. Each episode of the series cost $4 million to produce. Casting directors Jason La Padura and Natalie Hart brought forth a cast of new faces such as
Milo Ventimiglia, who described the TV pilot as a "character drama about everyday people with a heightened reality." Said heightened reality was brought to light through the work of production designer Ruth Ammon. Kring wanted the series to have touchstones that involved the characters and the world they lived in. Before he began putting his ideas together, he spoke with
Lost executive producer
Damon Lindelof, with whom he had worked for three years on
Crossing Jordan. Kring credits Lindelof for giving him ideas on how to pitch the series to the network and advice on the lessons he (Lindelof) learned about working on a
serialized drama. The two still speak and support each other's projects. When Kring pitched the idea for
Heroes to the NBC network, he described the network's reaction as "excited...very supportive." He comments that he has been partners with NBC for some time based on his six-year run as
showrunner for
Crossing Jordan. After the project was
greenlit, a special 73-minute version of the pilot was first screened to a large audience at the 2006
San Diego Comic-Con. It was initially reported that this unaired pilot would not be released, but it was included on the season one DVD set.
Writing helped define the tone of the series. When the writing team worked on an episode, each writer took a character and wrote the individual scenes surrounding them. These stories were then combined and given to the episode writer. This system allowed every writer to contribute to every episode, and enabled the writing team to finish scripts sooner, so the filming crew could shoot more scenes at a location. That forced the producers to redesign the season to encompass only the
Generations volume out of the three planned. The planned third volume,
Exodus, which was designed to be a story arc reflecting the effects of the release of strain 138 of the Shanti virus, was cancelled. The planned fourth volume,
Villains, was changed to the third volume and moved into season three. Following criticisms of the second and third volumes, Tim Molloy from
TV Guide reported that
Heroes would return to its roots with the fourth volume,
Fugitives, to attract new viewers and regain those who gave up on the show because of too many characters and plotlines. In November 2008, NBC fired Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb from the production staff of
Heroes over creative differences and budget problems. As a result, Kring would refocus the series on character development and simple storytelling. However, a high-ranking insider told
TV Guide that rather than pressure from NBC or Universal Media responding to recent plummeting ratings, it was Kring himself who fired Alexander and Loeb, because the duo refused to continue character-driven stories that made the first season popular from the start. In December 2008,
Bryan Fuller signed a two-year deal with
Universal Media Studios after the cancellation of his
ABC series
Pushing Daisies. He rejoined the writing staff of
Heroes starting with the 20th episode of season three and had a "key role in the writing and direction" of the series. On April 28, 2009, director/producer
Greg Beeman was fired by NBC.
Music The series score is composed by
Wendy Melvoin and
Lisa Coleman, with music engineer Michael Perfitt and vocals provided by
Shankar. Each episode averages 30–35 minutes of music. Melvoin and Coleman became involved with
Heroes from their previous work with executive producer
Allan Arkush. Kring gave general instructions to the pair, including the emotion and direction for each character. Kring wanted incredibly unusual music and gave Melvoin and Coleman a lot of freedom and permission to experiment. In
the pilot episode, Kring suggested that a "dreamy" cue be used in the scene involving
Claire Bennet running into a burning train. The "dreamy" cue became a signature piece of the show. Melvoin and Coleman developed musical cues for each character.
Claude's theme involved wind and voices to create the feeling of a ghost-like presence.
Sylar's involves
marimbas and
bassoons with
staccato to re-create the sound of clocks ticking in reference to the character's power.
Matt Parkman's theme involves voices being played backwards when he uses his power of
telepathy.
Peter Petrelli's theme involves
marcato strings.
Niki Sanders's theme was based on her character's alter-ego Jessica and involved winds and Indian voices chanting in an underscore to give a feeling that she was possessed.
Mohinder Suresh's theme is the piano composition that plays at the end of some episodes. In France, the
theme music of
Heroes is composed by Victoria Petrosillo. Her song, "Le Héros d'un autre", is used by television network
TF1 to replace the show's original incidental music. The network created a new opening credit sequence so they could play Petrosillo's theme. In September 2008, Melvoin and Coleman announced that they would be releasing
Heroes: Original Score, an album consisting entirely of the score from
Heroes. It was released on April 14, 2009, by La-La Land Records.
Filming and visual effects Eric Grenaudier and John Han of
Stargate Digital are the
visual effects supervisors and Mark Spatny is the visual effects producer for
Heroes. They work with visual effects animators Anthony Ocampo and
Ryan Wieber, who are also from Stargate. The series
visual effects consist of
blue screens and 2D and 3D animation. The visual effects for the series are created after the scene is shot in post-production, unlike special effects, which are incorporated into the scenes during filming. Notable visual effects include radioactive Ted in "
Company Man",
Nathan flying from
Mr. Bennet and
The Haitian in "
Hiros", and Hiro's time freezing encounter with the schoolgirl in the red bow in "
One Giant Leap". The series was recorded using a
single-camera setup. In keeping with the comic book thematic elements used on
Heroes, professional
comic book artists Tim Sale and
Alex Maleev were brought in to provide the artwork used within the series under the direction of Ruth Ammon, including the artwork of
Isaac Mendez, and Mendez's
metafictional comic book series,
9th Wonders!. Additionally, the
font used in captions and credits for the show is reminiscent of
traditional hand-rendered comic book lettering. It was created by Sale and is based on his handwriting style.
Heroes was designed by
production designer Ruth Ammon. Ammon was nominated for her work on
Heroes twice by the
Art Directors Guild and nominated for two Emmy Awards for excellence in art direction.
Heroes: Origins On May 14, 2007, NBC announced that it would air a six-episode
Heroes spin-off,
Heroes: Origins, during the 2007–08 season. The show was to introduce a new character each week, and viewers were to select which one would stay for the following season of the regular series. The show was supposed to air after the completion of the second season of
Heroes in April 2008; Kring stated in an interview that the first episode of
Origins was to reveal the secrets and meanings behind the Helix symbol. Because of the WGA Strike, Kring commented that the secret will have to be revealed down the line. Kring revealed that he was to write the first episode of
Origins, and that
John August had been hired to write another episode. Director
Kevin Smith, a fan of
Heroes, was set to write and direct an episode for the spin-off, as were
Eli Roth and
Michael Dougherty. On April 3, 2008, a day after NBC announced its 2008–2009 primetime schedule, Ben Silverman confirmed
Originss cancellation. ==Mythology==