When Heroes launched in 2006 on NBC, the series was a worldwide phenomenon, and one of the first characters audiences came to love the most wasn’t even a series regular at the season’s start…. that would be Jack Coleman, the man with the horn-rimmed glasses affectionately referred to as “H.R.G..”
The character — who was quickly revealed as the father of cheerleader Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) and eventually given a first name in the Season 1 finale — moved on from being the “face of evil” that the early promos painted him to be, and as more was revealed about Noah Bennet, combined with Coleman’s well-received performance, H.R.G. and his relationship with Claire became one of the backbones of the entire show.
Sadly, the character of Claire Bennet – the supposedly indestructible cheerleader – is deceased, killed in the opening moments of Heroes Reborn’s first episode, a casualty of a horrible incident that occurred on June 13th, but that relationship that formed the core of Heroes is still present in the way that Claire’s fate drives her father’s actions. Tonight’s episode of Heroes Reborn, appropriately called “June 13th – Part One,” sees H.R.G. partnering with the time traveler Hiro to go back to that fateful day, and maybe — just maybe — they can “save the cheerleader” again. The story arc brings back several original Heroes favorites, including Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura), Cristine Rose (Angela Petrelli), and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder Suresh).
We spoke with Jack Coleman earlier this week for some insight into the “June 13th” two-parter, and he’s revealed that some very exciting things are coming. As this interview runs long, it will be split into multiple pages, so be sure to read the whole thing.
KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: What does Noah hope to accomplish with going back in time to June 13th?
JACK COLEMAN: He’s trying to figure out what happened to Claire… that’s always his main motivation, no matter what else is going on. That’s Claire, and what happened to her, and how it happened, and whether or not there’s anything that can be changed… that’s always his motivation. So, that is primary; and then also, when Quentin gets killed and he’s seen what Renautas has done to Hiro, I think it’s all about going back and trying to fix some things.
Of course, Hiro’s the voice in the back of his head, saying “don’t step on butterflies. You mess with fate too much, you just make things worse.”
Will there be any conflict between Hiro and HRG about whether they will be able to change anything?
Yes. There’s always conflict in that regard. There’s always areas where they are not exactly on the same playbook. You watch the end of the episode last week, when I convince him that Erica has done something which is bad, and Hiro says “she’s bent time to her own purposes, and that is not right — so, I will go back and will help you, but you can’t step on butterflies” and I kind of kind of shine him on a little… there’s a little bit of “yeah, yeah, yeah, don’t worry about it. It’s going to be fine.” You’ll see that that does not necessarily come to pass.
I noticed that in the new show that HRG refers to Hiro as an “old friend” even though they didn’t interact very much in the original series. Did they have some interactions over the missing five years, that we just didn’t see?
You know what? I would think so, though, you know, I hadn’t really thought about that… probably not, honestly. Because I think when you greet someone “hello, old friend,” you’re talking about someone you haven’t seen in a long time. I think that a lot of this was a tip of the hat to the fans of the original show, and I think that some of it was the fact that even though they didn’t have that much, they do share a very colorful and distinct history together.
And speaking of old friends, when you first started getting scripts and you learned what would happen between HRG and Rene (The Haitian) at the end of Episode 1, did Tim Kring explain to you what all of that meant, and how it all comes together?
It wasn’t too much an explanation as a series of possibilities. That’s kind of where we left it… that certain things are going to happen which could affect other things… String theory, you know. It left everything a little bit up in the air… that’s how this show works.
What are you the most excited for fans to see in the coming episodes?
This two-parter [starting tonight, Oct. 29] is a real big one for me. It’s an origin story; it’s one of those things that we do from time to time… we go back in time, we see how things change, we see what things might get altered, we see the consequences of things being altered… so I would say the next two episodes and Episode 9 as well, which follows right after, kind of wraps up this volume.
It’s pretty cool. The thing that I’m most excited about is that people talk in such terms about the first season, but I remember very distinctly that during that first season and the first several episodes, people were saying “when is thing going to come together?” And then when it did come together, people felt “oh, there’s a real payoff here!” So that is certainly my hope for this go-round as well. It started to come together last episode; it comes together big-time in the next three.
What can you say about Noah’s reunion with Matt Parkman?
That’s in Episode 8. I’ll tell you this: These guys have a long history. We have a lot of stuff that we did together, and what’s really interesting is you see two people who start at a similar place who take very divergent paths. Both of them think that their path makes sense. Both of them can justify what they have done with their lives. But, we’re not in the same boat on the same river anymore. We have definitely taken divergent paths.
This interview is a bit long, so navigate to the next page below!
