Bye bye Chuck... Zachary Levi goes dark for Heroes Reborn

We all know him as the lovable computer nerd turned spy on the hit TV series Chuck, but when that ended Zachary Levi was looking for something completely different to do. He found it in the new series Heroes:Reborn where he plays (from all accounts) a pretty bad dude. Without disclosing to much of his own character’s arc, Levi noted this is a world where many regular humans are shaken by the fact their neighbours possess what could be dangerous powers.

Since his cult NBC series left the air in 2012, Levi has tackled material on big and small screens including the stop-motion comedy Robot Chicken and the super-hero spectacle Thor: The Dark World, in which he played the warrior Fandral.

But Heroes Reborn will reboot his career with his darkest role yet — his character Luke is a vigilante bent on exacting vengeance for the death of his son. The show continues Tim Kring’s saga of ordinary people suddenly bestowed with superhuman abilities, introduced in the four-season Heroes.

Levi says the new story picks up five years later, with a war brewing between those with abilities and those without.

Jack Coleman reprises his role as HRG, a.k.a. Noah Bennet, while other returning characters include Greg Grunberg as Matt Parkman and Masi Oka as Hiro Nakamura.

New characters include the awkward teen Tommy, played by Robbie Kay, who learns of a new ability that terrifies him; and Tokyo’s quiet Miko, played by Kiki Sukezane, who is searching for her missing father while hiding an extraordinary secret.

You can watch my EXCLUSIVE interview with Zachary Levi above. 

Catch the two-hour series premiere of Heroes Reborn on Thursday, Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT on NBC. Canadians can watch the premiere that same night at 8 p.m. ET/PT.