Gosh, will the original cast of Heroes even have screen time next season?

Yet another actor has been hired to join our favorite show: Shalim Ortiz will be joining the cast as an illegal immigrant trying to make it to the USA to be with his sister, played by Dania Ramirez. There's no word yet on super powers for either character, nor how prominent their parts will be.

Early in Heroes first season, Buddy TV reports, creator Tim Kring told various news outlets that he was intending to start each new season with a new set of Heroes involved in their own adventure. Somewhere along the way, he back peddled and said that instead he was going to stick with the current group, which would be no problem for fans of the series of course.

While we have no idea how strong of a role any of these newbies will play, we also don't know for certain who survived the season one finale.

Kring told a group of journalists at the kickoff for the world tour that just because an actor was touring in support of the show did not mean their character survives. The tour, after all, is being conducted to promote the international release of Heroes season one, not season two.

With Heroes finally returning on September 24, the following couple of details about the second season premiere have been revealed:

• The first episode centers around Claire.
• The episode will feature a villainous Japanese warlord known as "White Beard," various old Japanese villagers and Tuko, a West-African man working for Irish mobster Ricky.
• We'll meet new series regular Maya, a Hispanic woman in her mid 20s, played by Dania Ramirez. The episode will also introduce Kane, a recurring character that may become a regular.
• Hiro Nakamura will remain in the past for a few episodes.

We mostly know Hayden Panettiere as the actress that plays Claire Bennet; lonely, innocent, hopeful. Claire just wants to be accepted.

But the actual Hayden? We don't know this 17-year old personally, but certain stories and photos are leading some to believe that this could be the next Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton, troubled young stars that spend more time at clubs than charity functions.

We don't wanna base too much off a few pictures, of course, but the ones below - including a shot with co-star Adrian Pasdar - are showcasing this youth at her rebellious best... 

Missy Peregrym, who plays the evil Candice on Heroes, celebrated her birthday at Tangerine Friday night.

Missy and her family got down her birthday with a special pre-party meal prepared by Executive Chef Joe Elevado. After enjoying some the finest cuisine in Las Vegas, the Peregrym clan headed downstairs to the dance club.

After Missy was presented with a birthday cake, the lovely ladies partied like rock stars all night long, dancing on the burlesque stage behind the bar, singing along to every song and living it up on this special occasion.

In its most recent issue, Entertainment Weekly names 100 stars it loves. Topping the magazine's list? None other than Hayden Panettiere.

Why does the magazine feel so strongly about Panettiere? We shouldn't need to tell any fan of Heroes, but here are the reasons given...

WHY HER The breakout star of TV's hottest new drama, Heroes, Panettiere plays Claire Bennet, an unbreakable high school girl who became synonymous with the show when the catchphrase ''Save the cheerleader, save the world!'' entered the pop culture lexicon. '

'I think it was very clever,'' says the New York-born actress, although she admits that calls of ''Hey, cheerleader!'' now follow her around Los Angeles. ''But it's fun. It's not an obnoxious thing.'' Technically speaking, Claire doesn't actually spend much time shaking pom-poms. ''I told [Heroes creator] Tim Kring I need to cheer at some point,'' the actress says with a laugh. ''She wears the outfit all the time!''

CROSSING OVER Her debut record, due in 2008, reflects her diverse tastes. ''I wanted to make every song sound as different as possible,'' she says. ''I hate sitting down and listening to an album where every song sounds the same.''

Panettiere, who trained to be a singer for a while and even sang jingles, co-wrote most of the album's tracks, including ''Saved,'' about the death of a friend. ''You come in with an idea of what you want to write about,'' she says of the collaborative process. ''It's fun when you have a lot of different people that you get to bounce ideas off of.''

NEXT Panettiere's day job should keep her busy for years, but she'll start working movies into her schedule before long. First up is the indie drama Fireflies in the Garden, with Julia Roberts. It's a dream job, obviously — and definitely worth sacrificing a vacation for.

''I really wanted to set the tone for the kind of things that I want to do,'' she says. In the film, Panettiere will portray a young woman who leaves home to get an abortion.

SECRET TALENT ''I can ride a zebra! I had to ride one in Racing Stripes, and I'm, like, one of the only people who's ever ridden one. The trick is to hang on tight. They're bouncy little things. And never, ever go by the rear of it. It's not fun. They'll kick the bejesus out of you.''

During the on-set press conference in which creator Tim Kring announced a Heroes global tour, sponsored by Nissan, other details about season two emerged.

Here is a summary:

• According to Greg Grunberg, he begins filming today. After realizing that he'd sort of let the cat out of the bag, he said: "Well, I could be on a hospital bed ... or in a coffin."

Hayden Panettiere tried to help by joking that the entire cast would be standing around, lowering him into the ground. Therefore, it's a pretty safe bet Matt will survive those four bullets to the chest.

• Sylar (pictured) will be back.

• The end of season one, with Hiro in Japan wasn't really the ending ... it was a teaser of the first scene from the first episode of season two. Hiro will be in feudal Japan for "a handful of episodes," according to Kring.

• Kring envisions season two as consisting of three big story arcs.

• Heroes: Origins is an "anthology show." However, it's not a midseason show; it will air after the season two finale, and not during sweeps. They have not yet begun writing or filming it.

• Adrian Pasdar was sporting a full beard, and Milo Ventimiglia had an extremely short haircut.

NBC had a special event on the set of Heroes today to announce that they're going global. Literally.

The cast and creators will be traveling to at least seven major cities to promote the first season of the show in places in which it hasn't premiered yet. The confirmed cities so far are:

• Toyko
• Hong Kong
• Singapore
• Munich
• Paris
• London
• New York

Hmmm.... hasn't it been on in New York already? Anyway, we'll move on.

As reported by TV Squad, Nissan will be sponsoring the tour, which will also be going green in an effort to "reduce the carbon footprint," Kring said. Whatever that entails.

Greg Grunberg, who plays the mind-reading Matt Parkman, said he was visiting Paris with his wife recently, and emphasized hat show hasn't even premiered on the air there. However, he had people coming up to him left and right who recognized him from seeing the show on their computers.

The tour is focusing on season one and the upcoming August 28th release of the DVD box set, which includes 50 deleted scenes, commentaries, and the full 73 minute premiere episode.

Get ready to grow attached to a handful of new Heroes.

We've already reported that Dania Ramirez and Nick D'Agosto will be joining the show in the fall. Meanwhile, TV Guide now tells us to lookout for these series newcomers in season two, as well:

• David Anders (Alias‘ Sark) will play Takezo Kensei, an ancient samurai warrior and Hiro's childhood hero. Kensei, of course, is the original owner of the sword Hiro sought during much of season one.
• Asian pop star Eriko Tamura has been cast as a Japanese princess.
• Barry Shabaka Henley will portray Detective Fuller, a New York police officer.
• Holt McCallany is Ricky, the ringleader of a group of Irish thugs.
• Lyndsy Fonseca (Ted's future-daughter on How I Met Your Mother) and Dianna Agron (pictured) are cheerleaders, one sweet, one tart, in a Southern California town to which Claire is expected to move.

We know you need your fix of Heroes spoilers for season two.

Fortunately, Michael Ausiello of TV Guide is here to hook you up with information on next season.

I caught up with Hayden Panettiere at last Thursday's Entourage premiere and she revealed that the first episode picks up four months after the finale.

"A lot of things happened [during those four months] that people don't know about," she teased. "A lot of things changed and people will be like, 'Whoa!'"

The portrayer of Claire Bennet also hinted that someone did NOT survive the season-ending bloodbath, and here's more on who that may be:

NBC is holding a Heroes press conference tomorrow on the show's set, and all primary cast members will be present and accounted for. That includes Santiago Cabrera, Jack Coleman, Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter, Masi Oka, Hayden Panettiere, Adrian Pasdar, Zachary Quinto, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Leonard Roberts and Milo Ventimiglia.

Hmmm... someone is missing from that list. Do you know who?

According to Heroes creator Tim Kring, the character of Mr. Bennet changed a lot over the course of season one.

On an NBC blog, he talks about this character's evolution, while Hayden Panettiere chimes in with how Claire also overcame obstacles on her way to heroics:

Tim: The character that went through the most change for me was Jack Coleman's character - Claire's father. Because if you paid close attention to the pilot, he only had about 8 lines of dialog. While I always imagined he'd have a presence on the show, I never imaged the big role he had and a lot of that is because of the chemistry between him and Claire. And in many ways, the most central relationship of the entire season was that between Claire and her father.

Hayden: You know, I think that in the beginning she was a normal girl dealing with normal things who wanted to date the quarterback and just fit in. I think it was a fabulous idea to make her a cheerleader cause it made her relatable to people - it reminded people of normal adolescent behavior.

And she discovers this thing she has and she looks at it as the worst thing in the world. To a teenager, it was completely dramatic, but over the course of the season she's evolved into a young woman with a beautiful naiveté who is still a young girl but who has come into her own, who has learned to embrace who she is and the ability that she's been given.

Tim: She literally became a hero. She went through the hero's journey: from reluctant and unwilling to someone who is willing to make the ultimate sacrifices. So in some ways, she's the most heroic character on the show.