Although NBC’s upcoming limited series Heroes Reborn is mostly being filled with brand-new characters, there are a few familiar faces from the original series who will be on the revival. Jack Coleman has been confirmed to reprise his role as Noah Bennett, and several weeks ago it broke that Masi Oka will return as Hiro Nakamura. Now a third Heroes alumni has been confirmed to appear. This time it’s the memory-manipulating Haitian, Bennett’s mysterious partner from The Company days.
Deadline is reporting that Jimmy Jean-Louis will reprise The Haitian for an arc on Heroes Reborn. Jean-Louis joins a cast that consists of Coleman, Oka, Zachary Levi, Robbie Kay, Danika Yarosh, Gatlin Green, Ryan Guzman, Judith Shekoni, Kiki Sukezane and Henry Zebrowski. The 13-episode limited series is said to “reconnect with the basic elements of the show‘s first season where ordinary people were waking up to the fact that they had extraordinary powers.”
In Heroes, The Haitian was one of Primatech’s superpowered agents, i.e. “one of them.” His abilities included being able to erase memories and suppress any nearby superpowers, both of which came in handy when it came down to tracking “specials” and mind-wiping anybody who saw something they shouldn’t have. Although he primarily worked with Bennett during the show’s four seasons, he also assisted main characters Claire Bennett, Angela Petrelli and Peter Petrelli on several occasions. He was referred to as The Haitian for the show’s first three seasons, and in Season 4 he was finally named as René.
Since the article identifies Louis’ inclusion on Heroes Reborn as an arc, we probably shouldn’t expect him to appear in all 13 episodes. Although the article doesn’t specify whether The Haitian will reunite with Bennett, I could imagine Bennett recruiting The Haitian to use his power negation abilities to help him wrangle in an especially dangerous “special,” and that could involve some memory erasing in the process. At the very least, it would be a shame if the duo did not reunite, considering how well they worked together.
Since Heroes ended, Jean-Louis has primarily appeared in guest spots on television. His roles include recurring as The Captain on Arrow and Pierre Lyon on Extant. He can also be seen later this year in the films Joy and A Day Like A Week.
Heroes Reborn is scheduled to premiere on NBC in fall 2015, and will be preceded by an online prequel series.
