John Stamos Inherits a New Full House With Fox’s Grandfathered

It’s party time on the set of Grandfathered, but the kids aren’t all right. Dozens of pint-size extras are supposed to crowd the dance floor of Jimmy’s, a swanky, upscale Los Angeles restaurant owned by perpetual bachelor Jimmy Martino (John Stamos) as he throws an impromptu birthday bash for his 2-year-old granddaughter, Edie (played by twins Layla and Emelia Golfieri). Former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora takes the stage to provide the soundtrack for the celebration, and everything seems to be going off without a hitch until the children scatter at the sight of Stamos attempting to push his way through the tiny dance mob.

“I’m trying to go through them, but they run when they see me,” Stamos explains to creator and executive producer Daniel Chun (The Office). As the cameramen reset, Stamos corrals the kids in the middle of the room, kneels down and flashes his blinding white smile. “Guys, nobody is attacking me,” the actor directs them in a friendly, singsong voice. “You’ve got to karate chop me!”

The children take his advice to heart, and on the next take, they swarm the leading man, hitting and kicking him as he delivers his lines. Suddenly, one overzealous boy latches himself onto Stamos’s upper thigh, which elicits a quick-thinking moment of improv from the actor. “Hey, watch the cannolis!” Stamos says with a laugh.

It’s been 20 years since Stamos last made family-friendly television magic as the Elvis-obsessed, leather-clad Uncle Jesse Katsopolis on ABC’s long-running Full House. This fall, the 52-year-old is hoping to re-create that success with Grandfathered, which finds his perennially single character learning he not only has a grown son named Gerald (Drake & Josh’s Josh Peck) but also a granddaughter in little Edie. “This is literally the show I’ve been waiting 10 years for,” says Stamos, who also serves as executive producer. “It’s a continuation of what I think I’ve done well on TV: a show that has heart, is about family and has relatable themes.”

Stamos began his television career in 1982 as troubled musician Blackie Parrish on the ABC soap General Hospital before landing his Full House gig in 1987. After eight seasons on the show that jump-started the TGIF brand, he made the leap to Broadway with runs in revivals of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Cabaret before returning to the small screen in 2005 for a series-regular role on the final four seasons of NBC’s ER. “He’s been so famous for so long that he should be a jerk, an animal or a monster,” says Criminal Minds vet Paget Brewster, who plays Jimmy’s ex-girlfriend and Gerald’s mom, Sara. “I was not signing on to do a show with a creep, so I asked everyone I knew who knew him, and they all said, ‘That guy is solid.’”

“John is definitely a kid at heart,” adds Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden. “He has a lot of chemistry with the [twins] on Grandfathered and the relationship that’s developing feels very authentic. His kindness can charm a baby.”

Well, not always. Even though Stamos is No. 1 on the call sheet, it’s apparent his toddler costars rule the Grandfathered set. The Golfieri twins have two miniature director’s chairs of their own behind the monitors, and the transportation vans that shuttle the actors back and forth from the stage to their trailers are outfitted with two cushy car seats. And when the cameras roll, the old entertainment-industry adage warning against working with children and animals has never seemed more relevant. Stamos notes that the twins did a lot of “crying and screaming” during the filming of the pilot, especially in an important scene in which Edie plants a kiss on Jimmy after a tough night of babysitting. “[Producers] were like, ‘We’re just going to change it to where Edie is crying.’” explains Stamos, who worked with the Olsen twins when they were tots on Full House. “And I said, ‘No, no, no. The kiss makes it. I’m not going to finish the show until we have this shot. We finally got it in the second-to-last take because they slowly got used to me, but it was a brief moment, because she screamed her head off right after. It might have been my breath, I’m not sure.”

Luckily, the twins are not Stamos’s only scene partners. Grandfathered focuses heavily on the father-son relationship between Jimmy and Gerald. Over the course of the first season, Jimmy will take his socially awkward son under his wing to try to up his game with the ladies, particularly former fling and Edie’s mom, Vanessa (Christina Milian), who sees Gerald as just a friend now. “He’s allowing Gerald to come out of his shell more and not be so awkward or afraid of the world,” Peck says. “And Jimmy’s starting to appreciate the idea that he has perhaps missed a big part of what life’s about, which is family, kids and the joy that comes with them.”

Much like Jimmy, Stamos admits he’s still searching for a deep, meaningful connection with a significant other. “Something is missing in his life that could be a parallel with mine,” says the actor, who was married to Rebecca Romijn for seven years until their divorce in 2004. “When I was a kid, I made a list of all the things I wanted to accomplish, and I’ve crossed off every one of them 10 times except for having a family. So to explore what that’s all about on TV and see if it works—if it does work—I’ll do it in real life.”

He’ll have more than enough to draw on, because when it comes to TV families, Stamos is currently hitting the jackpot twice over. While Grandfathered readies its debut season, Stamos is also hard at work on the Full House reboot for Netflix, titled Fuller House, which is slated to premiere in spring 2016. “There were so many years where I really didn’t want to say those two words,” Stamos admits. “Not that I didn’t love it, but I had to get away from it.” It’s clear how much he’s come around on the idea now, though: He’s executive producing the new series and will appear in at least two episodes as Uncle Jesse.

Stamos, who partnered with original Full House creator Jeff Franklin for the reboot, says the new series just “fell into place” over the last year, with the main storyline centered around original daughters D.J. (Candace Cameron Bure) and Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin). “The first taping was explosive—people just loved it,” Stamos says. “I had saved my old wardrobe, so I wore all the leather jackets. It was a bit of a trip.”

Stamos also enlisted his Full House cast mate Bob Saget for a cameo appearance in the Grandfathered pilot—as a frustrated diner at Jimmy’s restaurant. Other guest stars in the premiere include former NFL star Deion Sanders, comic legend Don Rickles and rapper Lil Wayne, whom Stamos lovingly dubs “the holy trinity” for posing together in Jimmy’s epic selfie. Throw in a musical homage from Stamos’s other pals the Beach Boys and the Grandfathered pilot boasts a varied cross section of Stamos’s real-life influences and friends. “Years ago, you wanted to stay away from everything that was relatable to you, but now it doesn’t matter,” he says. “There’s no pedestal anymore. You can’t take yourself too seriously, and that’s what this character is. I’m a bit of a fool, so I just play to that.”

Grandfathered premieres Tuesday, Sept. 29, 8/7c, Fox.

Returning Favorites: How to Get Away With Murder Plots a Twisty Second Season

Something’s out of order on the Hollywood set of How to Get Away With Murder. High-powered attorney Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) is sitting not at the defense table but in the witness box of a packed courtroom. While she appears characteristically polished in a forest-green sheath, it quickly becomes clear she’s uncomfortable in her new role. Especially since she’s there to provide evidence against ex-cop Nate Lahey (Billy Brown), her sometime lover. The very one she’s done everything possible to frame for the murder of her husband.

“Argumentative!” she objects after one of the prosecutor’s questions. Reminded by the judge that’s not her call to make today, Annalise silently fumes, until the DA dares to suggest she conspired with Nate. “I did not swear on this court’s Bible,” Annalise explodes, “so that I might be burned at the stake!”

Still, there’s no doubt the fearsome, rule-bending attorney and law professor is playing with fire when Murder returns for Season 2—and its leading lady couldn’t be more stoked. “Annalise always keeps you guessing,” Davis says during a break in filming. “As soon as you feel you’ve arrived at who she is, something else happens that surprises you.”

Consider that a warning: A bombshell revelation about Annalise’s past in the season premiere will undoubtedly whip Twitter into hashtag overdrive.

Of course, #OMG twists are the reason ABC’s drama became a killer hit last fall. Created by Pete Nowalk and executive produced by Shonda Rhimes, Murder piled up the dead bodies while piling on the morally murky characters, including Annalise; her loyal associates, Frank (Charlie Weber) and Bonnie (Liza Weil); and a quintet of cutthroat law-school students—Wes (Alfred Enoch), Connor (Jack Falahee), Michaela (Aja Naomi King), Laurel (Karla Souza) and Asher (Matt McGorry)—who intern at her Philadelphia firm. In its first season, the series averaged 14.9 million weekly viewers (including DVR playback), earned Davis countless critical kudos and ultimately proved to be a hold-on-for-dear-life addition to Rhimes’s ShondaLand theme park, which includes fellow Thursday-night roller-coaster rides Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal. “I don’t know how to stop people from getting whiplash,” Rhimes says of her hit TGIT lineup. “But I know Pete’s a little genius, and I’m not surprised [by the show’s success] because I’m very good at picking people who can make good shows.”

Murder’s bloody-good February finale resolved the season-long mystery of who killed Lila Stangard, the pregnant sorority-girl mistress of Annalise’s duplicitous late hubby, Sam (Tom Verica). “I was excited it was Frank,” Weber says of his smooth fixer, who committed the crime at the behest of Sam to repay a still-undisclosed debt. “I played him in a way that didn’t make it hard to believe [he did it], yet Frank wasn’t at any time a prime suspect—at least not in that murder.”

The jury’s still out on who’s responsible for the shocking season-ending fatality—Wes’s girlfriend, Rebecca (Katie Findlay), who was found by Frank and Annalise in the Keating basement—though that won’t be the case for long. The killer’s identity will be revealed in the premiere, which picks up a few days after those events. “It just didn’t feel like a mystery I knew how to drag out,” Nowalk
explains of his decision to swiftly resolve the riddle.

It’s taking substantially longer for the cast to recover from losing one of their own, especially Enoch, who was Findlay’s on-screen beau. “It’s strange,” the actor says quietly. “Ideally, it wouldn’t have happened. You lose the opportunity to work with a friend.”

In fact, Rebecca wasn’t always doomed. Nowalk realized over last year’s Christmas break that a major character needed to die to propel the show forward into Season 2, though he first flirted with the idea of offing a prominent male character. “What made me decide on Rebecca was how unjust it was,” Nowalk says. “Most people thought she was bad, then just as you’re finding out she’s not, she’s dead. That felt so heartbreaking.”

It wasn’t the producer’s only difficult call. An alternate ending was filmed, partly to guard against potential leaks and partly because Nowalk is a perfectionist who likes to have options in the editing room. (Not even the cast was sure of the finale’s final shot until the episode aired.) “That’s just Pete’s nature,” Weber says of Nowalk, a Rhimes protégé who previously penned episodes of Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy. “He can’t stop writing. If he’d had two more weeks, there would’ve been four more alternate endings.”

Nowalk calls the upcoming reveal of Rebecca’s killer “a character moment,” not unlike when the formerly wide-eyed Wes was unmasked as the one who whacked Sam in order to save his girlfriend, which led Connor, Laurel and Michaela to help cover it up. “I don’t think in terms of ‘We need a bigger, bolder twist here,’” Nowalk insists. “It’s more, ‘What feels real for the character in this moment?’”

Expect to learn much more about what makes each player tick in this criminally high-stakes game. The so-called “Keating Five” seemingly believe Annalise’s lie that Rebecca is merely missing, though mistrust among the group soon grows. And Bonnie and Frank’s backstories will be unveiled. “Why do they feel so beholden to Annalise?” Nowalk says. “That’s very rich, complicated territory.”

It’s fertile ground that Weil, who likens the characters to one very dysfunctional family, is thrilled to be exploring. “Bonnie’s dynamic with Annalise is maternal: a primal, raw loyalty that knows no bounds,” she says. “And Bonnie and Frank have this sibling-esque relationship, with the sweet and sour of that. There’s jealousy and all kinds of twisty, messy things.”

No one, though, continues to prove messier than Murder’s mercurial mother figure. “There’s never been a leading lady like me on television, ever,” says 50-year-old Davis proudly. “I challenge anyone to name one woman of color my age, my hue, who’s allowed to be sexual, strong, vulnerable, human—all at once.”

Last season, Davis performed one of TV’s more memorable scenes when she wordlessly removed her wig and makeup, symbolically ridding Annalise of the armor she wears for the outside world. Sitting on a bench outside the courtroom set, the actress remains passionate about keeping it real. “I’m trying to create a human being within the structure of this pop fiction,” she says. “I’m trying to do things that are grounded in reality, and this season we’re going more in that direction.”

From the start, Davis has collaborated closely with Nowalk. Last season’s episode “Mama’s Here Now,” which revealed Annalise’s past sexual abuse, came from Davis’s own suggestion. And while TV Guide Magazine was on set, the actress was bursting with excitement about another idea she couldn’t wait to pitch Nowalk. “I just emailed him,” she said, her iPhone in her lap, “and he’s coming here now.”

The showrunner has an open dialogue with much of the cast. Last year, he shared his thoughts on crafting an HIV storyline involving Falahee’s character, Connor, and his boyfriend, Oliver (Conrad Ricamora), who received a positive diagnosis in the finale. While Falahee was all for it, “Some people are like, ‘Really? The gay has to have HIV?’” says Nowalk, who is openly gay. “But I say, ‘No one’s telling the story on TV of a couple where one’s positive and one’s negative, and that’s a relationship that’s happening all over the world. Let’s tell it.’”

Another story Nowalk is eager to tell: Nate’s fate. Facing trial for Sam’s murder, he’ll receive help via a lawyer from Annalise’s past. “What that person does for Nate,” Nowalk hints, “is a big part of our premiere.”

Look for Wes to expect his ethically challenged professor to deliver on her promise to locate the “missing” Rebecca (who will appear in the premiere via flashbacks). “What happens when he discovers he’s been betrayed?” Enoch teases. “That’s a time bomb waiting to go off.”

So is what occurred after Nate’s prosecutor showed up at Asher’s door, pressuring the student for info that could bring down Annalise. Says McGorry, “Asher has some secrets of his own that we’re delving into.”

Meanwhile, the students are also wrestling with the identity of the mysterious “Eggs 911,” whom Rebecca texted for help shortly before her death.

X-Men star Famke Janssen will appear in two episodes as Eve, a death-row attorney who tangles with Annalise. “I’m a fan of the show, and, frankly,” Janssen says, “even I was shocked by what happens!”

Finally, look for Annalise to try to land new clients—two siblings who are accused of killing their wealthy parents—in a high-profile case that opens up an explosive new Murder mystery that may be the most dangerous yet. “When I read the premiere,” King reveals, “the first thing I said to myself was, ‘Oh, so we’re gonna end after Season 2? Because how can we survive this?’”

Davis claims to have no idea. “There are some things Pete won’t tell me because he thinks I have a big mouth,” she says with a laugh. “That’s one of them. You just gotta fasten up and go along for this crazy ride.”

How to Get Away With Murder returns Thursday, Sept. 24, 10/9c, ABC.

TV Guide Magazine’s 2015 Fall Preview: Scoop on 38 New Shows

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for TV fans: TV Guide Magazine‘s Fall Preview issue is out, with scoop on 38 new shows. Our editors have selected their Top 10, and here’s what senior critic Matt Roush has to say about them:

The Bastard Executioner (premieres Tuesday, Sept. 15, 10/9c, FX)
Matt’s Take: And you thought Game of Thrones was brutal. (You were expecting puppies and lilacs with this title?) With ruthless feudal barons replacing unscrupulous ranchers, this bloody swing at medieval revenge melodrama has the feel of a grim classic Western. Just a different sort of scalping here.

Blindspot (premieres Monday, Sept. 21, 10/9c, NBC)
Matt’s Take: Got a soft spot for high-concept action heroics? Then Blindspot’s for you—a sleek and exciting showcase for Jaimie Alexander’s elaborately inked ninja, who promises to be the fiercest yet most emotionally vulnerable heroine of the new season.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (premieres Monday, Oct. 12, 8/7c, The CW)
Matt’s Take: Insanely entertaining, though possibly as polarizing as Ally McBeal in her prime, this stylized farce of irrational desire and irrepressible musical-comedy fantasy should make the fearlessly wacky Rachel Bloom a star. What a marvelous companion piece for the equally delightful Jane the Virgin.

Grandfathered (premieres Tuesday, Sept. 29, 8/7c, Fox)
Matt’s Take: What’s more awww-inspiring than a metrosexual narcissist bonding with a baby girl? Grandfathered might be too adorable if not for the tart, sardonic writing. John Stamos undercuts the sentimentality with self-deprecating glamour. Seriously, it’s like a cute-off between him, the baby and sensitive baby daddy Josh Peck.

The Grinder (premieres Tuesday, Sept. 29, 8:30/7:30c, Fox)
Matt’s Take: The season’s most original, and hilarious, sitcom is a splendid vehicle for Rob Lowe to strut and emote with mock drama-king gravitas. But Fred Savage as the frustrated Newhart-like mensch unhappily living in “the Grinder’s” shadow really steals this winningly unorthodox family comedy.

Heroes Reborn (premieres Thursday, Sept. 24, 8/7c, NBC)
Matt’s Take: We’ve only viewed a few scenes, but they’re impressive enough to warrant a return to this world in a darker scenario where the not-always-super heroes must save themselves. If they help raise NBC’s profile on a tough Thursday night, they really will be heroes.

The Man in the High Castle (premieres Friday, Nov. 20, Amazon Instant Video)
Matt’s Take: Fascinating in its attention to altered period detail, unnerving in its depiction of an oppressed America, this could be the year’s most binge-worthy fantasy drama. Though given the fascist circumstances, you may fear learning what comes next.

The Muppets (premieres Tuesday, Sept. 22, 8/7c, ABC)
Matt’s Take: Our love affair with these fuzzy, funky immortals continues, taking on inspired new life with a tongue-in-fist approach that adds a meta layer of showbiz satire to their eternally funny shenanigans. Appealing to all ages, the Muppets are more than ready for primetime.

Quantico (premieres Sunday, Sept. 27, 10/9c, ABC)
Matt’s Take: While you may wonder from which fashion mag the FBI plucked this gaggle of gorgeous recruits, Quantico delivers an instantly addictive crime drama with a killer hook and layers of twisty mystery. It graduates at the top of this fall’s want-to-see-more class.

Supergirl (premieres Monday, Oct. 26, 8:30/7:30c, CBS, then moves to 8/7c starting Nov. 2)
Matt’s Take: Melissa Benoist rises to the heroic occasion, cloaked in an endearing dorkiness and earnest gumption that compares well with Christopher Reeve’s classic interpretation of Kara’s better-known cousin. Blending workplace humor, romance and exhilarating action, this upbeat Supergirl soars.

Pick up this week’s issue for more on these shows—and 28 others!

Heroes Reborn: The Saga Continues

They never had a chance to say goodbye. The 13-episode supersaga Heroes Reborn, premiering September 24 on NBC, will begin five years after the conclusion of Heroes, the fantastical “Save the cheerleader, save the world!” series that started off as a critically adored phenomenon only to fizzle and end abruptly in its fourth season. For the show’s diehard fans, the cancellation and the lack of closure was maddening because, in a way, the story was only getting started: When Heroes left the air on February 8, 2010, young Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) had jumped from the top of a 60-foot Ferris wheel in New York’s Central Park and revealed her amazing regenerative powers to the media. Suddenly, the entire world knew of the existence of people with superhuman abilities.

Now that world is striking back. In Heroes Reborn, starring Zachary Levi and several vets of the original series, those with special powers are known as Evolved Humans (aka EVOs), and their vast numbers are growing across the planet. They are also being stalked, captured and sometimes slaughtered by an increasingly fearful public. Panic over these supreme beings hit critical mass in 2014, when an international summit at the Primatech company in Odessa, Texas, brought thousands of humans and EVOs together in an effort to foster peace. Instead, the event ended in death and destruction on the scale of 9/11. Claire Bennet was among the casualties. Taking credit for this unfathomable act was none other than Dr. Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), the kindly, Peter Parker–esque wall walker from the original series.

“Heroes took place in a world that was dangerous and complicated, but it carried a message of hope and world consciousness,” creator and executive producer Tim Kring notes. “Heroes Reborn is something else altogether. Our heroes have been forced into hiding just when they are needed most. There is an end-of-the-world event coming. We’re talking total extinction.” While Heroes spun on “mystical discovery,” Kring says the new series “plays more like those great Watergate-era paranoid thrillers like Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View—with a little Quentin Tarantino shock and violence thrown in.”

Scary times to be sure, but Masi Oka is happy to revel in them. The Heroes fan favorite, now a regular on Hawaii Five-0, will bring his time-bending character, Hiro Nakamura, to Reborn for a handful of episodes. Truth be told, he’s showing up for the cast reunion as much as the acting opportunity.

“When Heroes died, there was never a chance for us to grieve as a group,” Oka says. “Tim Kring assured the actors we didn’t have anything to worry about, so we wrapped Season 4 not realizing we’d never be together again with our crew, the producers, the writers, the directors, everyone who made Heroes such an amazing show. We never got to say goodbye to the fans, and that hurt a lot. It was over in a heartbeat.”

Greg Grunberg, who returns in the rebirth as telepath Matt Parkman, won’t forget that fateful day. “I was at a charity breakfast when we were supposed to get word of our pickup from NBC, and I was so excited when Tim called to say we’d do another season,” Grunberg recalls. “Ten minutes later, he called again and said, ‘Nope, it’s only 13 episodes.’ And he kept calling, and each time the deal got shorter and shorter. Then, one of my geek friends called and said, ‘Dude, so sorry you got canceled.’ He’d read about it on a fan blog. That’s how I found out!”

Yes, showbiz is brutal, but it also packs the most insane surprises. One night, out of nowhere, NBC ran a 15-second promo for Heroes Reborn during the 2014 Winter Olympics. “The cast just went nuts texting each other because this was the first any of us had heard about it,” Grunberg says. “To have this second chance is incredible…well, except for the fact I’ve put on 25 pounds since the original and I’m on the treadmill every day trying to look like the old Matt!”

But the old Matt no longer exists. When we last saw the guy, he was an LAPD detective and the show’s moral compass. Now that EVOs are endangered, he’s a hired gun taking any gig that will keep his family safe—even if that means working for the EVO haters. “Matt is a man with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other—and the devil has been winning for the last few years,” Grunberg says. “Some of his choices will shock you.”

Other Heroes stars coming to the revival are Jack Coleman (Noah “HRG” Bennet), Jimmy Jean-Louis (René, aka the Haitian), Cristine Rose (Angela Petrelli) and an all-grown-up Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah). Ramamurthy, who will once again be the show’s hypnotic narrator, was stunned to find out his character is now Public Enemy No. 1.

“This was not the wrap-up for Suresh I was hoping for,” Ramamurthy says with a laugh. “At first, I was like, ‘Wait. Whoa. Whaaat? Suresh is a terrorist?’ But now that I know his entire story arc, what’s happened to him makes sense and I think it’s pretty cool.” Ramamurthy notes that “unless you’re playing an Avenger, a Star Trek character or one of the X-Men, it’s really rare for an actor to revisit a role. We’re all so grateful for this. But let’s face it: Heroes Reborn is not about us old guys. It’s about the new ones.”

And they are one wild bunch. Among the incoming EVOs are Afghanistan war vet Carlos Guttierez (Ryan Guzman), who fights crime in a Mexican wrestler costume under the name “El Vengador,” and Miko Otomo (Kiki Sukezane), a young Tokyo woman whose sword-swinging alter ego “will take us into a surprising and visually stunning world that’ll have the audience buzzing,” Kring says. There’s also a big teen contingent, headed by on-the-run high schooler Tommy Clark (Robbie Kay), who can make people disappear, and Malina (Danika Yarosh), a haunting beauty directly connected to the end of days.

It’ll be up to Noah Bennet, the former Primatech bagger and tagger, to tie all these characters together, just as he did on Heroes. But first he has to come out of hiding. Now known as Ted Barnes, “Noah has gone off the grid since the Odessa incident and is selling cars and living a life of domestic tranquility,” Coleman says. “He wanted out of the EVO game, but, like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, they keep pulling him back in.” After learning that his memory of the Odessa tragedy has been mysteriously altered, Noah finds himself in a battle spanning time and space with new über-villainess Erica Kravid (Rya Kihlstedt), and he will seek help from Hiro.

“These five years have really changed Hiro,” Oka says. “He’s now running his father’s company [Yamagato Industries] in Japan and keeping his powers under wraps. He’s no longer the innocent. He’s done going back in time to fix things. But he can’t say no to HRG.” Before long, Hiro is in “the most startling sword fight of his life, with not one but two katana swords—Darth Maul–style,” Oka says. “If we go another season, you may see him with three.”

But if Heroes Reborn does end up returning for another round, will Levi make the cut? It’s hard to imagine that happening. In a darkly disturbing career turn, Levi—best known as the adorably dorky secret agent in Chuck—will take on the role of Luke Collins, whose EVO son was killed in Odessa. Luke and his wife, Joanne [Judi Shekoni], are now bent on revenge against all EVOs, and in the first episode, they will infiltrate a church and slay several members of an EVO support group—a scene uncomfortably reminiscent of last June’s mass murder in Charleston, South Carolina. The act seems utterly unforgivable. But is it?

“My hope is to make the audience understand and sympathize with Luke,” Levi says. “If we can somehow find the humanity in someone we consider a monster, and maybe even relate to him, well, that says a lot about us as humans, doesn’t it? Luke is so tortured and hopeless that he believes this world can’t be safe and good as long as there are people with powers in it. He kills not just to honor his son’s memory but to save his marriage and his wife’s sanity.”

Joanne is another story. “Luke is so conflicted [about eliminating EVOs] that it gets to the point where he wants to die,” Levi says. “But all this murder only serves to bolster his wife and to further her bloodlust.” Joanne is in so much pain that “killing becomes her addiction and the only way she can feel better,” adds Shekoni. “She’s actually enjoying this, and it might split them up as a couple. You won’t know from episode to episode if they’re going to make it.”

Especially when a major secret about Luke is revealed. “My character is basically Paul from the Bible, the guy who persecuted Christians and then became one,” Levi says. “Luke will go through a huge identity crisis when he becomes the very thing that he hates.”

The actor knows he may disappoint some of his fanbase, specifically those who prefer him kooky and cuddly. “I’m definitely feeling the fear factor, but you know what? Being Chuck required very little acting on my part,” Levi admits. “This show challenges me. This show makes me believe in myself as an artist. As a longtime Heroes fan, I want to take the viewers—new and old—on a f—ing awesome ride. You can’t please everybody, but that doesn’t mean you don’t try.”

Heroes Reborn premieres Thursday, Sept. 24, 8/7c, NBC.