Powerless (Heroes) - Production

Production

The episode was originally conceived to be the conclusion of "Generations", the second volume in the series, as Kring wanted to have shorter volumes than in season one. As such, "Powerless" was timed to coincide with the Heroes winter hiatus. With the interruption in production as a result of the Writers' Strike, Kring re-wrote elements of the episode to act as "a de facto season finale" if there were no additional episodes the second season.

Allan Arkush and Kring revealed in an interview on The Post Show that many parts of the finale were re-shot due to the Writers' Strike. Kring and Arkush commented that they re-shot the scene in which Peter telekenetically caught the virus. In the original cut, the virus was to shatter and be released. Kring admitted that the virus being released was to play a huge role in Volume 3, however, they decided to go into a different direction and re-shoot the ending, allowing Peter to catch the virus and destroy it. Kring also commented that the scenes where Matt, Peter and Nathan were talking in the vault were rewritten in and added later, as well as the Press Conference scene and the scene with Angela Petrelli talking on the cell phone. Kring and Arkush stated that the ending had to be rewritten and re-shot because they did not know when the show would return to air, due to the Writer's Strike, and they wanted to make sure that they tied up all the loose ends.

As of the end of this episode, the status of three main characters remained undetermined. Niki Sanders was last seen inside a burning building which subsequently exploded, and Nathan Petrelli was shot while attempting to speak out against the Company. Their fates were left intentionally ambiguous because the writers were unsure of whether they wanted to proceed with Niki and Nathan's characters; decisions were made following the Writers' Strike resolution. As for the fate of Adam Monroe, Kring was more direct, saying "we've given the audience no reason to believe that Adam can figure a way to get out of there. The fact that he can live forever makes this the most gruesome of internments. If this happened to any of us, at least we'd know we'd soon have the mercy of death. Not here." Two of the series' villains also saw changes. Elle's decision to take on Sylar gave her a chance to use her abilities to help rather than to hurt people. Kring says "she's been given an opportunity to use her powers in a good way. And she absolutely likes the sound of that word 'hero'." Sylar's use of the stolen sample of Claire Bennet's blood led to the restoration of his abilities. According to Kring, "Sylar getting his power back does not bode well for our heroes". Originally, Sylar was not supposed to get his abilities back due to Zachary Quinto's commitment to the new Star Trek film. However, due to the Writers' Strike, Quinto completed his role in the film by the time Heroes returned to production.