Greg Beeman is a producer on Heroes. Somehow, with all his job entails, the man finds time to blog about the show.

We thank him for it - and present this take on the show's final episode and first season.

There you have it 23 episodes of Heroes. Wow. What a long strange trip it's been. Everyone else who works with me on the show will agree that it has been one of the hardest and most creatively satisfying experiences of our professional careers.

The fans frequently sight that the show looks like a mini-feature every week. That is a great compliment to all of us. But, as you can imagine, it's not easy to do that. The sheer logistics of doing this series have been quite challenging mentally and physically.

So, while you guys may have to wait three months or so for the next installment, let me encourage you with the following news: First we here at Heroes are already all back at work. Episode 1 is being written as we speak and we begin shooting episode 1 in about 1 short month. I have heard the writers pitch out the story lines for the next season and lemme tell you they are freakin' awesome. There are new characters. New powers. Some of the characters you have come to know and love, in fact, DID die last night.

And ALL those who survive will be moving on in new and unexpected directions. We are all ABSOLUTELY COMMITTED to not repeating ourselves next season – but in bringing you a freshly conceived show. Also, the reason we are beginning so early is that we are all committed to long runs of the show next year with very few, and very short hiatuses. We don't want to be off the air with new episodes for 5 or 6 weeks anymore.

Also, the DVD will be out on August 28th and it will be loaded with lots of extras. We have been working on many of those extras for several months already.

OK – that's it. As for me, my blog will go dark for a couple of months. But this season, my plan is to come back online a few times before we air, to fill you in on what's developing, and maybe to answer some questions you have. I'm sure the official NBC site and Herosite.net will alert you when new blogs are up.

Hang in there. And we'll see you next year!!!

Peter Petrelli has the ability to replicate the superpowers of others just by coming in contact with them.

Now, the actor that portrays him, Milo Ventimiglia, is hoping that he has absorbed some of the skills of the many directors he's worked with in his young career.

The actor will be directing a series of shorts for American Eagle Outfitters, the fashion retailer announced in May. A dozen of the five-minute episodes are planned to run on the company's website on Thursday nights this August. Short versions of each episode, which will be three minutes long, will air on MTV during The Real World: Sydney this summer and in American Eagle stores.

The series, titled It's a Mall World, focuses on five employees of various outlets in a shopping mall: a pair of record store employees, a "bad-boy poseur from the requisite mall juice bar," a lingerie store worker who is "slightly psychotic," and an American Eagle "greeter."

Acting in the series will be Dianna Agron (Shark), Eddie Hargitay (Neutral Ground), Sam Huntington (Veronica Mars, Superman Returns), Amanda Loncar (Law & Order), and Deon Richmond (Not Another Teen Movie).

Adam Green (Hatchet) will write and Russ Cundiff will produce under Divide Pictures.

On a live blog hosted by NBC.com, Heroes creator Tim Kring recently answered fans' questions, one of them being about the upcoming spin-off Heroes: Origins.

"The idea was to try to do about half a dozen episodes that are stand-alone episodes dealing with the origin stories of characters all around the world who are waking up with the discovery of these unique abilities," said Kring. "They are not connected necessarily to the show Heroes, but if you do watch or are a fan of Heroes, you'll see tiny little clues that tie into the show."

Moreover, there's good news for fans who grew up watching old sci-fi shows. Kring wants the storytelling to be similar to that of The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling.

"[Origins will feature] cautionary tales and morality tales," said Kring. "Dealing with these people with unique abilities. So they're completely stand-alone episodes that don't follow a serialized formula."

When the spin-off was first announced, NBC said that one of the new characters featured would become a member of the Heroes cast, but that doesn't seem etched in stone yet.

"Some of the stories in Origins can be similar to characters currently on Heroes and one of the people on Origins may be involved on Heroes, eventually..."

Guess we'll have to tune in and find out.

At least one of the mysterious new Heroes has been revealed.

Dania Ramirez, who enjoyed a recurring role on HBO's The Sopranos as AJ's ex-fiancee, will join Peter Petrelli, Hiro Nakamura, and the rest of the super friends next season as a regular, reports Reuters.

Ramirez should have no problem conjuring up a few powers for the part: she played Callisto in X-Men: The Last Stand.

Heroes still has yet to announce which actors will take over the remaining new characters that season two will introduce fans to: an Irish mobster; a surrogate for Niki/Jessica's son; a late-20s African-American mother; and a boyfriend for Claire.

Our good friends at Buddy TV recently sat down with James Kyson Lee, the actor that portrays loyal friend to Hiro, Ando, on Heroes.

How did you end up with the part of Ando on Heroes?
The whole audition process was a little over a year ago, February last year, and it was a long process and I had to audition five times. You know, the first audition and the initial callback with the producers and then they do what's called a work session in which they basically prepare you for going before the executives. Mine felt just like another audition. And then we had to go before Universal Studios to do a screen test, and finally it was at the network, at NBC.

What were your first thoughts when you got the pilot script? Could you tell that this might have the potential to be a pretty big deal?
Yeah I did, I felt it right away. It was a page turner, I couldn't put it down, it was…it felt like reading a movie, you know…a feature script and I was really curious to see how they were gonna film this because there were people flying, walking through walls. You know, it just didn't read a like a regular TV show so I really felt that there was something special at hand and it was a show that I wanted to check out whether or not I was involved in it, so yeah…so far it's been amazing.

You work pretty closely with Masi Oka as Hiro. How has it been working with him? You guys seem to have a pretty easy, natural chemistry going on.
You know, we do have really good rapport on camera, which is surprising because, one, this is our first time working together, and two, we really don't have any kind of rehearsal time because the show films at such a fast pace. We don't have any table reads and, you know, all of us have really busy personal lives off the set.

So, you know, it's very common that when we show up to work, after a half an hour we are dressed in make up and we're filming, so a lot of the stuff that happens on camera is really spontaneous and in the moment. Masi and I both come from an improv background, so that helps.  One cool thing is that even though this is a one hour drama we get to bring some comedic elements onto the show, which really opens things up and adds a different layer to our storyline and the show overall.  So, I think that's what really separates us from all the other TV shows out there.

To read the rest of this interview, click here.

Nissan and NBC announced today a multi-faceted, robust 360 marketing program for season two of Heroes, encompassing product integration, off-channel platforms, wireless applications, traditional television advertising and significant on-air and online sponsorships.

"Nissan is constantly searching for opportunities to build extensive advertising partnerships that allow us to engage consumers by building brand awareness on many platforms," said Steve Kerho, director of interactive media, Nissan North America. "This ongoing partnership with NBC also gives us the opportunity to introduce the all-new Nissan Rogue, a new CUV that epitomizes the exciting and adventurous spirit that defines Heroes."

"We're committed to doing business with our clients in ways that extend beyond the 30-second spot and are thrilled to join forces again with Nissan to build on our successful season-one partnership," said Mike Pilot, president, NBC Universal Ad Sales. "This deal exemplifies the concept of having an 'upstream relationship' with our clients and shows just what can be achieved when the clients and creative teams come together early in the process."

In this one-of-a-kind deal, Nissan will use Heroes as the central hub of a multi-pronged marketing campaign for the launch of its new crossover vehicle, the Nissan Rogue.

The campaign will kick off on the night of the Heroes season premiere, which will be exclusively sponsored by Nissan and broadcast with limited commercial interruption. To further enhance the viewer connection to the Rogue, the vehicle will be integrated into the premiere episode and driven by a main character.

Nissan will also roadblock the full episode of Heroes on NBC Rewind for 24 hours after the show's on-air premiere, marking the first time an advertiser has executed this type of program on NBC Rewind.

In addition to more traditional advertising opportunities both on-air and online, the Nissan Rogue campaign also includes sponsorship of numerous unique off channel platforms including a Heroes music video and the season one DVD release. Nissan Rogue will also be involved in NBC's wireless platforms and will sponsor the Heroes 360 WAP sites.

Less than a month after being crowned Miss Universe, Riyo Mori is hoping to land another job â?? a role on the NBC sci-fi series Heroes.

â??As soon as I won Miss Universe I had this big chance,â?? Mori said in an interview last week. â??Iâ??ve never acted before. I went to the casting audition and read a script in English and Japanese, and they said it was really good. So I hope I can be in the show.â??

Mori said the role of Yaeko, which she read for, would be a love interest for one of the main characters on Heroes. Itâ??s safe to assume that would be Hiro Nakamura.

The 20-year-old dancer won the 2007 Miss Universe contest in Mexico City last month. The only other time Japan has won the pageant was in 1959, when Akiko Kojima became the first Miss Universe from Asia.

E! Online posted a brief interview with Hayden Panettiere last week.

When commenting on season two of Heroes, the faux cheerleader said the following about a possible love interest:

"This show has been so broad, and it's been such an incredible thing that it seems like it can go anywhere and that she can go anywhere, so I'd like to see a change of location maybe.

Toward the end of the season, I'd like to see her get a little bit of a change of style—more sophisticated, growing into her own. I'd like to see a boy in the horizon somewhere, which I've heard rumors of."

While Heroes fans have been wondering what will become of the show's resident evil-doer Sylar, Access Hollywood breaks some news on the super-powered villain's future on the show.

Zachary Quinto, who plays Sylar on the hit NBC drama, will return as a series regular next season, a rep for the actor confirmed to Access.

As season one ended, it appeared everyone's favorite group of mutants might have finally thwarted Sylar's plans for destruction once and for all as Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) thrust his samurai sword into Sylar's chest.

However as the show ended, a quick pan back to the scene of the attack revealed a blood trail leading from where Sylar's body lay into the sewer, suggesting our villain wasn't quite done yet.

Before he stepped into the breakthrough role as the power-sucking hero, Quinto appeared in guest spots on CSI, Touched By An Angel, Charmed and Six Feet Under.

According to his bio, Quinto "would next love to play a young Spock in a the new 'Star Trek' movie."

Before Heroes, Ali Larter was That Girl From Varsity Blues in the Whipped Cream Bikini.

And she still is. But she's also Niki Sanders. Below are highlights from an interview the actress gave a few months ago, just as Heroes was taking off:

How did you become involved with the Heroes project? TV was something that I wasn't initially attracted to, because of the schedule and that it pretty much demands that you live in Los Angeles for a set amount of months of the year. When I moved back here [to L.A.] this January, I was ready to base myself here for a little while, and I thought it was a good time to entertain the possibility. I always thought that, especially now, TV has some of the best writers working, and amazing roles that you can play. So this pilot season, I just started reading. Some of the things I thought were interesting, but I didn't feel like, if we were lucky enough to go for many years, that it would be able to hold my interest for that long, and then Heroes came around. It was the first pilot that I actually auditioned for.

When I read the script, I just thought it was amazing. I think that Tim must have locked this little bit of genius somewhere in him, and once it was able to come out, he just ran with it. I think that he created such an extraordinary world. I think that Niki is such a complicated and interesting character, so it was like "This is the one, I'm gonna go in and play ball," and I did the auditioning process like every other blonde in Hollywood. I went in, worked with Dave Semel and the producers.

Then they brought me in for studio, then they brought me in for network, which is one of the hardest things I've ever been asked to do as an actor, to be honest.

Do you feel that Niki might be one of the more difficult roles in the series to play because of the hardships that she has to go through? You know what? I don't look at any of the other characters and compare myself to them. The reason I love playing her is because she is so conflicted. I just think that she's a great multi-faceted dramatic character, and it's within an ensemble of equally conflicted characters. So I can't imagine any of the roles being more difficult than any of the other ones. I just think everyone's so thrilled at the depth and the potential of each of the characters.

Do you think Niki's "ability" may stem from a personal fear that she has of herself? I think that the gift that she has and the sources of all of her anxieties are more complex than we actually know yet, and I think that's an interesting question. If we look into ourselves, are we scared of our own light? I think that's a human question that we can all relate to. But what's happening with her and the powers, and what they've hinted at so far, I think, is leading us into the question of the duality that can live in everybody.

I'm really excited to see where they're going to take her. Where I hope that she's going and what I think would be interesting to explore as an actor is the social conscience, someone who can live without a social conscience versus someone who has to live in the confines of present day society.

Does Niki think that she's crazy? As I've been working all along is, if I don't understand it, and I was in these situations, I would absolutely think that my world is crumbling around me, and I don't know if her mind is trying to protect her from things ... I personally would believe that I was going to crazy, but I would snap myself out of it. She doesn't have the luxury in life to indulge in those things.

Is there anyone in your life that inspired your performance in playing a single mother? There wasn't anybody that inspired it. One of the reasons I was excited to play this mother is that she treats her son like an equal. She doesn't have everything perfectly in order in life, and she sometimes goes left when she should go right, but she is so driven by her love with her son. I think that their relationship is so interesting, because she doesn't have the luxury of going out on dates or having a romantic relationship, so for her, she's up watching Letterman with her son, or going to the movies with him, and she spends all of her time with him.

I think that they really have an amazing chemistry and an extraordinary bond. So, there wasn't someone that inspired that, but I have a lot of friends and people in my life that were raised by single mothers, and the bond that they have, is so incredible.

Did your personal interaction with the young actor who played Micah inspire your performance or chemistry on-screen? Absolutely. He is such a little genius, that one. He's a musical prodigy. I mean, I say that he's a musical prodigy, and he'll say "No, Ali, I work really, really, really hard. I work a lot of hours." He's so sweet.

And he is a hard worker. He does have an amazing head on his shoulders. He listens, he's so prescient; and he also has an incredible mother and an amazing relationship with her. I think that why he is so right for this role, is because of that. He has such an incredible relationship with his mom Whitney.

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