Zachary Levi Previews ‘Heroes Reborn,’ His Vigilante Character

“Chuck” alum Zachary Levi returns to NBC on Thursday night in “Heroes Reborn,” the new event series from Creator Tim Kring.

On the show, the actor plays a Luke Collins, husband to Joanne (Judith Shekoni), a troubled couple who are so devastated over the loss of their son in an incident (believed to be) caused by evos (the “evolved”) that they are making it their mission to seek out and harm people with abilities.

“The series picks up five years after the end of the original series, and at the end of the original series, the world finds out that there are people amongst them that have abilities. Four years after that — so a year prior to us prior to us picking up — there’s a massive incident that happens in Odessa, Texas. It’s considered a terrorist attack, it’s linked to people with abilities, so that causes a huge shift in the paradigm of the world, of how people see people with abilities and the fear and the paranoia that [comes] from that and the power struggle and there is a lot of like, government, clandestine like bagging and tagging of the abilitied,” Zacahry explaiend to Access Hollywood about the start of the show. “There’s also a lot of vigilantism that crops up in that.

“Sometimes, people with abilities are becoming vigilantes to protect themselves. Sometimes, people without abilities are becoming vigilantes because they genuinely believe that the world is a safer place without those abilities, and that’s where Luke and Joanne come in,” he continued. “They have been greatly affected by the incident in Odessa, and it really rocks their world so much so that they take it upon themselves to rid the world of the abilitied people.”

As the series rolls out, viewers will see the stresses of Luke and Joanna’s chosen mission taking its toll.

WATCH: Robbie Kay & Ryan Guzman Preview ‘Heroes Reborn’

“There’s a lot of darkness, there’s a lot of sadness, there’s a lot of conflict in that,” Zachary said. “They’ve been doing it for about a year going out and kind of being these vigilantes, but it’s taking its toll and so in the first three, four episodes even, that starts to have a kind of interesting shift in their day to day, and in their relationship. But everything in the show – we’re catching up at a very crucial time and you come to find out where things are happening and escalating very rapidly and I think like any good story, everyone believes in what they’re doing and that makes some people very evil and some people very good, but even those who are evil really believe that what they’re doing is good in some regard and so you have a lot of things coming in at each other.”

The “Heroes Reborn” cast includes new faces like Zachary and some old ones too, including Jack Coleman as HRG (horn-rimmed glasses, aka Noah Bennet).

“He is kind of the proverbial glue that is keeping everything together and connecting us back to the old world and the characters from the original series that will come back,” Zachary said. “But, one of the great things about ‘Heroes,’ is it has that — you look back and this was connected to this, which was connected to this and so on and so forth, so we’re all kind of connected and then those connections become stronger and more evident the further the show goes.”

“Heroes Reborn” kicks off on Thursday night on at 8/7c on NBC with a two-hour premiere.

— Jolie Lash