Back in February, NBC surprised viewers watching their Olympic coverage by debuting a brief teaser for Heroes Reborn, a 13-episode mini-series that revisits the hit series Heroes. It has already been announced that Heroes star Jack Coleman is returning as Noah Bennet (a.k.a. The Man in the Horned Rim Glasses/HRG), but other original cast members such as Zachary Quinto, Hayden Panettiere and Ali Larter have expressed doubts about whether they will return or not.

Series creator Tim Kring revealed in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly that the story will primarily focus on a number of brand new characters.

"The vast, vast majority are brand new characters, brand new ideas. [Bringing back previous characters is] really only to give a sense of continuity and a tether to the original world. If it was all completely brand new, we'd miss certain elements that need to be there to give you that bridge to cross to something new. I approached Coleman because he was a character who had a spine through the series that allowed you to meet new characters. So he's a character I wanted to make sure had a little part at the beginning of this thing."

When asked how he pitched NBC to bring Heroes back to life, Tim Kring revealed that the network actually pitched him.

"To be honest, it wasn't a pitch from me, it was a pitch from NBC to me. They saw the value in that franchise and brand and asked if I was interested in helming it again. And we had left the story in a place where we had more story to tell. So given the opportunity, I had ideas of where I wanted the story to go originally when we were hoping for a fifth season and so when we were given the opportunity five years later, some of those same thoughts were there as to where this story goes. But five years had passed and I also had new ideas on how to reboot the brand in away that gives people a whole fresh take on the series with a whole host of new characters but gives you that sense of you're in that world of Heroes you're familiar with."

He also confirmed that Heroes Reborn will be set after Heroes Season 4.

"It takes place in a post-Season 4 universe. So it will tie into some of the ideas that were left dangling."

While Heroes started out as a huge hit for NBC, it is best known for the criticisms it received in later seasons. When asked if he sees Heroes Reborn as a chance to change the way people think of the original series, Tim Kring had this to say.

"I'm not really looking at it in those terms. I was always excited to start every season. Obviously as somebody who grows and matures as a writer and storyteller, I'm hoping the time away from the show will bring a freshness to it. I always saw Heroes as having a message about hope and global connectivity and consciousness and those are even more solidified in me as I get older and I think i have just as much to say about it as in the beginning of the series. I still have a lot more story to tell."

Tim Kring also spoke about how the current, 22-episode network model doesn't work anymore.

"All of us who were working in the serialized genre, we all knew that model of network television where you're on all season long from September to May, we all started to feel that same thing. We were watching like Breaking Bad or The Sopranos and the audience would wait patiently for a year, or year an a half, for nine episodes and you started to see that scarcity really was a valuable commodity for the audience. With something that's on all the time, it's hard to be rare and special when you're neither rare nor special. Having a limited idea is a very modern way to tell a story and we all got that lesson in the Harry Potter series when J.K. Rowling told the whole world she was only going to write seven books - so you knew when reading Book 5 it was very precious because there was only two left. And that scarcity really does set you apart when there's a lot to compete for your eyeballs."

Heroes Reborn returns to the NBC lineup in 2015.