The hit NBC series Heroes chronicles ordinary people who develop superhuman abilities returns for its fourth Monday tonight. During this upcoming season we have to ask if good will be able to outlast evil and will the future be able to be saved? Only time will tell.

Until then, here's what Hayden Panettiere who portrays Claire Bennet, a teenager who has the power of rapid cellular regeneration that allows her to heal quickly and Masi Oka who portrays Hiro Nakamura, a man who has the ability of space-time manipulation had to say about Heroes.

Eric Stromsvold: As we're going into the fourth year of the show, do you feel like you have a tight grip on your character or are you still learning things as you come along?

Hayden Panettiere: It's a little tough because even though we are playing the same characters, you really do have the whole writing staff taking us in whichever direction they want to. And on this kind of show there's infinite amount of possibilities of where you could go, whether you stay good, whether you turn bad [and] who you're working with.

So it's always a surprise. I think you can only -- I mean we know our characters so well now that we can see what they -- or figure out what they would do in these situations and go from there. But really you never know what you're going to be playing.

Masi Oka: Yeah I agree and I think that's what keeps it interesting and challenging. There's definitely something to be said about the familiarity that we want to give the audience with our character portrayals but, you know, the writers put us in very different situations and combinations and I think that's always the fun part.

So we might have a grip on our character, you know, like as we do in life as we grow the characters grow and evolve as well so there's always a constant change and surprise.


What do you see your characters going through this season that maybe they haven't before, new arcs?

Masi: Hiro's going through the whole terminal illness and the bucket list. So I think he's taking life a little bit more seriously and feeling more (unintelligible) yet at the same time, trying to keep hope alive and it's that duel and the juxtaposition between life and death and the hope and despair that I think Hiro's balancing well. So this is kind of a new thing for him.

Hayden: Yeah. I think I'm personally in college and dealing with a new best friend and roommate with a very -- who has -- we have a very interesting relationship together. But she's really the first person that she's been able to let in on her secret and somebody that's really a confidant. But that's a very delicate balance that can easily fall apart.

One little misstep and her dad will bring Rene the Haitian in to wipe their memories and that will be that. She's happy that she's semi caught up to normal life, that normal life that she's been chasing; but where exactly we're going to go, I think there's going to be some manipulation and just some fun stuff. We really don't know so that's why we get so excited to read the scripts every week.

Hayden Panettiere and Masi Oka Talk © NBC Photo: Chris Haston

Why do you think people continue to tune in and watch the show?

Hayden: I think because just like we get excited to read our scripts and see what we get to do next, they get excited to see what adventure we're going to go on next. There's always these little twists and turns that are exciting and it's just a really fun show to watch.

I found myself Tivoing because I was working so much last season. I Tivoed all of the episodes so I could come back and watch them back to back to back and I found myself like I could not put my remote down. I was like, "Just one more episode, please." And this is a show that I'm on and I don't generally like to watch myself. It's just exciting and it's smart and I don't think it belittles the audience and I think it's just one of those rad shows…Did I really just say that? Did I really just say rad show?

Masi: Yes, I...

Hayden: Wow, I did.

Masi: I'm giving you a rad check.

Hayden, I was wondering if you could talk about working with Ashley [Crow] and your guys' relationship. (Ashley plays the mother of Hayden's character.)

Hayden: Ashley's awesome. She's one of my favorite people on the face of the planet. She's so talented and so spunky, so funny and just such a lovely human being to be around and I -- even when I was younger I would always say, "God if there was anyone that I would want to be like when I grew up personality-wise, it's Ashley." Because she just -- she's got it all. She's got it all. She could win anyone over. I'm convinced.

Heroes returns to NBC with a two-hour premiere on Monday September 21!


Story by Eric Stromsvold

Starpulse contributing writer