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.

Nick D’Agosto has landed a recurring role on our favorite show for next season.

The young actor he will play Claire Bennet’s (Hayden Panettiere) boyfriend, West, who is said to have “a very cool superpower.”

D’Agosto is the second new addition to the cast of Heroes for next season, joining recently appointed new regular Dania Ramirez.

This past development season, D’Agosto co-starred opposite Marisa Tomei in CBS’ comedy pilot The Rich Inner Life of Penelope Cloud. Last year, he played the male lead opposite Mena Suvari in another CBS pilot, the drama Orpheus.

D’Agosto will next be seen in the indie Rocket Science, which premiered to strong reviews at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

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!!!

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.

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 � a role on the NBC sci-fi series Heroes.

�As soon as I won Miss Universe I had this big chance,� Mori said in an interview last week. �I�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.�

Mori said the role of Yaeko, which she read for, would be a love interest for one of the main characters on Heroes. It�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.

Heroes creator/executive producer Tim Kring, has inked a new deal with NBC Universal Television Studio, the studio behind the hit smash show.

Under the two-year pact, said to be one of the biggest in television, Kring will continue as the showrunner on Heroes and will shepherd its upcoming spinoff, Heroes: Origins, as well as the various offshoots in print and digital media. Kring also is expected to develop new projects for the studio.

This marks the first major talent deal to close since Katherine Pope took the reins of NBC TV as president several days ago. That couldn�t be more fitting as Kring and Pope are close friends going back to the early days of NBC Studios, which the two joined within months from each other in 1999-2000.

Kring came to the studio to work as co-executive producer on the family drama Providence and soon became one of the first writers signed by the studio in an overall deal. He went on to create and run the long-running procedural drama Crossing Jordan.

Pope, who has been rising through the ranks of the studio and NBC, has been involved in all three NBC series on which Kring has worked.

�NBC Studios has grown and changed as I have grown, and Tim has too - he�s grown to show more of the absolute diversity of his talent,� Pope said. �The reason this deal is so important to us is because of Tim�s absolutely extraordinary ability to write all types of characters with such authenticity. He can find the humanity in the characters and everything he writes.�

As the summer draws to a close, fans of Heroes won’t even notice the weather turning cooler. How come?

Because season one of our favorite show will hit stores on August 28. We can’t wait!