Stars from our favorite show will be in Toronto next month to mark the release of the Season One DVD and to generate some buzz for season two of Heroes.

Global, which broadcasts the NBC hit in Canada, announced Tuesday that several cast members will meet fans on Aug. 31 in Yonge-Dundas Square. It’s part of a whirlwind tour that will stop in eight cities around the world.

“We are thrilled to be embarking on this exciting venture,” said Heroes creator and executive producer Tim Kring, in a release. “The theme of Heroes has been about people from all over the planet coming together to do great things. About making the world a smaller, more inter-connected place. This tour is the embodiment of those ideals.”

The list of cast members coming to Toronto hasn’t been announced, but Adrian Pasdar, Milo Ventimiglia, Hayden Panettiere, Masi Oka, Ali Larter, Greg Grunberg and six others are participating in the tour.

The Heroes World Tour, presented by Nissan, kicks off Aug. 27 in Munich and Tokyo with stops in New York, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Singapore and Tokyo.

Heroes: Season One will be released on DVD on Aug. 28 and the second season premieres Sept. 24 on Global and NBC.

Guess those Emmy Award rumors held true:

Heroes has been nominated for Best Drama. It faces some stiff competition, but you know what everyone says: it’s an honor just to be nominated.

Here are the five shows up for this trophy:

1. Heroes
2. The Sopranos
3. Grey’s Anatomy
4. Boston Legal
5. House

Meanwhile, congratulations to Masi Oka for his nomination in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.Here are those nominations:

1. Masi Oka
2. Michael Emerson
3. William Shatner
4. T.R. Knight
5. Terry O’Quinn
6. Michael Imperioli

The Envelope recruited three groups of Emmy experts to predict who’ll nab nominations when bids are unveiled at 5:35 a.m. PT on Thursday.

Two actual voters who judged episode samples submitted in the races for best drama and comedy series squared off against top TV journalists and two of The Envelope’s message board moderators known for their Emmy expertise.

There’s strong disagreement over many of the contenders. The Emmy voters, for example, don’t believe “Lost” or “Friday Night Lights” will make the list for best drama, but both shows have strong support among journalists and Envelope moderators. As for Heroes? Read below.

Here’s the breakdown:

2 EMMY VOTERS (Anonymous)

Judges agree in both drama and comedy series categories:

BEST DRAMA SERIES
“Grey’s Anatomy”
“Heroes”
“House”
“The Sopranos”
“24″

BEST COMEDY SERIES
“Entourage”
“The Office”
“30 Rock”
“Two and a Half Men”
“Ugly Betty”

*******************

TV JOURNALISTS

Marc Berman, Mediaweek
Robert Bianco, USA Today
Hal Boedeker, Orlando Sentinel
Michele Greppi, TV Week
Tom O’Neil, Gold Derby, TheEnvelope.com
Ray Richmond, Hollywood Reporter
Matt Roush, TV Guide
Mo Ryan, Chicago Tribune
Diane Werts, Newsday
David Zurawik, Baltimore Sun

BEST DRAMA SERIES
“The Sopranos” — Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, O’Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts, Zurawik
“Friday Night Lights” — Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts, Zurawik
“Heroes” — Berman, Boedeker, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts, Zurawik
“Lost” — Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, O’Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan
“House” — Bianco, Boedeker, O’Neil, Roush, Ryan, Zurawik
“Grey’s Anatomy” — Berman, Bianco, O’Neil, Roush, Zurawik
“24″ — O’Neil
“Brothers and Sisters” — Werts
“Rescue Me” — Richmond
“The Shield” — Werts

BEST COMEDY SERIES
“30 Rock” — Berman, Bianco, Greppi, O’Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts, Zurawik
“Ugly Betty” — Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, O’Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts, Zurawik
“The Office” — Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, O’Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts
“Entourage” — Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, Greppi, Richmond, Werts
“Scrubs” — Berman, O’Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan
“Two and a Half Men” - Greppi, O’Neil, Roush, Ryan
“Desperate Housewives” — Boedeker, Werts, Zurawik
“My Name Is Earl” — Boedeker, Greppi
“Extras” — Zurawik
“The New Adventures of Old Christine” - Bianco
“Weeds” — Zurawik

ENVELOPE FORUM MODERATORS

Chris “Boomer” Beachum, Robert “Rob L” Licuria

DRAMA SERIES
“The Sopranos” — Beachum, Licuria
“Grey’s Anatomy” — Beachum, Licuria
“Lost” — Beachum, Licuria
“Friday Night Lights” — Beachum, Licuria
“24″ — Beachum, Licuria

COMEDY SERIES
“The Office” — Beachum, Licuria
“30 Rock” — Beachum, Licuria
“Ugly Betty” — Beachum, Licuria
“Two and a Half Men” — Beachum, Licuria
“Scrubs” — Beachum, Licuria

** We’ll have the official word on whether or not Heroes make the cut as soon as it’s announced.

Yes, you read that headline correctly.

Before season two of Heroes hits the airwaves in September, you can relive season one with a collection of Heroes trading cards. Pre-order them today.

And don’t worry about breaking that Hayden Panettiere card. It’ll regenerate.

Dominic Keating, possibly best know for his role as Lt. Malcolm Reed on the final Star Trek spinoff, has been added to the second season cast of Heroes.

He joins a slew of other new actors, led by Dianna Agron, the actress seen as various minor characters on Veronica Mars.

Keating will play a super-powered Irish mobster, while Agron will join Hayden Panettiere in the role of mysterious cheerleaders. We wonder what will happen if Peter Petrelli saves TWO cheerleaders? Does he save two worlds?

Other recent additions to the series include David Anders (Sark on Alias), Nick D’Agosto, Shalim Ortiz and Dania Ramirez (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, X-Men 3).

Heroes producers have been very secretive with details as to what powers each character will have. But we’ll be sure to let you know more when we do.

As you might have predicted, the cast of our favorite show will be present for the 2007 Comic Con convention on Saturday, July 28 to promote the show.

Reportedly, the Heroes panel will last approximately 75 minutes - and you’ll get a glimpse of some exclusive clips from the upcoming season, while also enjoying a question and answer session with the cast and crew.

Heroes will get its chance at the spotlight on Saturday, from 12:45 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Here’s Comic Con’s blurb on the event:

12:45-2:00 Heroes: Exclusive Volume II Clip and Q&A: Heroes chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities. Be the first to see an exclusive clip from Volume II and learn more about the DVD Heroes 360 and more.

Participate in a Q&A session moderated by co-executive producer/comic book writer Jeph Loeb, with creator Tim Kring, comic book artist Tim Sale (Batman: The Long Halloween), and the entire cast: Jack Coleman (H.R.G.), Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah Sanders), Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman), Ali Larter (Niki Sanders), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura), Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder Suresh), Dania Ramirez (Maya), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli), and more.

The official Emmy Award nominations don’t come out until July 19.

But there’s been a leak!

TheEnvelope.com has apparently managed to track down the Academy’s top 10 choices worthy of Emmy nomination in a few categories. These are unconfirmed, but should make fans of Heroes excited:

Drama Series/Episode being screened
Boston Legal/”Angel of Death”
Dexter/”Born Free”
Friday Night Lights/”Pilot”
Grey’s Anatomy/”From a Whisper to a Scream”
Heroes/”Genesis”
House/”Half-Wit”
Lost/”Through the Looking Glass”
Rome/”De Patre Vostro”

Drama - Supporting Actor
Masi Oka/Heroes

We hope these come true. Meanwhile, we know for a fact that certain actors, such as Zachary Quinto, have been nominated for Teen Choice Awards.

On August 26, FOX will air the Teen Choice Awards.

And young fans of Heroes will have plenty of chances to vote for their favorite show and cast members. Here are the categories within which various actors are up for awards:

Drama series: “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Heroes,” “House,” “Lost,” “Kyle XY.”

Dramatic actor: Hugh Laurie of “House,” Jared Padalecki of “Supernatural,” Matthew Fox of “Lost,” Milo Ventimiglia of “Heroes,” Wentworth Miller of “Prison Break.”

Dramatic actress: Emily Deschanel of “Bones,” Evangeline Lilly of “Lost,” Hayden Panettiere of “Heroes,” Jennifer Love Hewitt of “Ghost Whisperer,” Katherine Heigl of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Choice breakout show: “Ugly Betty,” “Friday Night Lights,” “October Road,” “Heroes,” “South of Nowhere.”

Choice breakout: America Ferrera of “Ugly Betty,” Matt Dallas of “Kyle XY,” Taylor Kitsch of “Friday Night Lights,” Hayden Panettiere of “Heroes,” Masi Oka of “Heroes.”

Choice villain: Michael Rosenbaum as Lex on “Smallville,” Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina on “Ugly Betty,” Zachary Quinto as Sylar on “Heroes,” Michael Emerson as Ben on “Lost,” Robert Knepper as Theodore Bagwell on “Prison Break.

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.

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.