Heroes creator Tim Kring looks into the past, present and future of this season's hottest new show
Is it difficult for you to write someone out?
Kring: Oh, yeah. And obviously, we've skated a little bit around it, but the truth is, it's out there as an issue. On a show like this, characters have to come and go, and that's how you keep it fresh. Partially, or mainly, because for me, the main theory was that this is happening all over the world, and it's happening to people even as we speak. And if we don't get to meet those people, it's no fun. And you want to meet those people. Also, for me, the origin story still continues to be the most fascinating part of the show.
The truth is, we've tried to make characters click enough with the audience so that you really feel emotional. And clearly we did this with the waitress, Charlie. ... She hit really big, and people were very upset by the idea. But the truth is, that was done for a very conscious reason. We needed to drive home for the audience in a very sort of profound way that time travel was not the answer to everything. So we needed to make something that hit really emotionally, with a real emotional punch to drive that point home.