TvGuide has 4 different covers for Heroes this week, and they also got a special Tim Kring interview. Here is it..

Claire finds her birth parents. Peter vanishes. Hiro’s father shows up, and so does a startling new Israeli hero with high-tech capabilities. Someone will die. NBC’s Heroes is headed for an explosive February. To get the scoop on the next few episodes (and a hint of what’s to come in Season 2) TV Guide went to the man with the real superpowers â€â€? Heroes creator and executive producer Tim Kring.

Hit us with the bad news first. Who’s dying? Are we going to hate you?
Some people will be upset, sure. During February sweeps we are going to kill off one of our regulars, someone who has been with the show from the very beginning.

You’re using the word “regular” as opposed to “hero.” Is that a clue?

You know what? I personally never use the term “hero” because I happen to know that, ultimately, some of these seemingly heroic characters will not be heroic. But with our ability to bend time and change things, not all those who are killed are making their last appearance on the show â€â€? and we actually do have plans for the character who’s dying.

We’ll see Claire’s biological mom â€â€? played by Nip/Tuck’s Jessalyn Gilsig â€â€? on Jan. 29. How will that unfold?

Claire sets out to locate her birth mother and finds her living in a trailer park in an old Airstream. That’ll be a shock, but the identity of Claire’s father will be a bigger shock.

There’s a rumor that this will be a highly soapy revelation and that viewers are already familiar with the dad. True?
I’ll say no more about that except that the reveal will be a lot of fun for the audience. That’ll also happen in February, but then Claire still has to go on the road to find him. Once she meets her true parents, it will become even more important for her to find other people like her.

Will H.R.G. know about these meetings?

No, they will be clandestine. Claire will not have a lot of family stuff at home in Odessa, Texas, for the remainder of the season. Her trust in H.R.G. is out the window.

So after riding the fence with H.R.G., you’re making him a true villain?
There’s no shade of gray with him, but I’ve never tried to fool the audience with that. Both sides of the guy’s personality are equally honest. He’s very nefarious and very loving.

After Eden shot herself in the head, why did you have H.R.G. go to such drastic lengths to get rid of her body?
It seemed like overkill! I liked the idea that the audience knew she died in Odessa, but that she ended up in a lake 2,000 miles away in Canada. For me it shows that the organization has a tremendous reach and a capability to do crazy things. It means they can make all kinds of things go away.

Continuing with your “Meet the Parents” theme, Hiro’s father â€â€? played by George Takei â€â€? also pops up Jan. 29, right?
And it’s going to be blow-your-mind cool. The character will provide a gateway into a whole world back in Japan that we will explore in Season 2 â€â€? a story about Hiro’s family and his past.

Will Hiro regain control of his powers?

He’ll be a little handicapped for a while. Hiro can’t be so powerful that he becomes a crutch for bad writing. That’s why we had him fail to save the waitress. We can’t have him go back in time and fix everything. Hiro’s quest for the sword will take him from naive boy to a real man.

The mysterious, unseen mobster Linderman is growing in importance. Hiro and Ando are headed to Las Vegas to find him, and we know he has connections to Niki, D.L., Simone and Nathan. Will we see him soon? He will continue to grow as a force and be revealed after February. The casting on this one is tricky. We’ve already built such a huge aura around Linderman that we don’t want to disappoint, yet it could be cheesy to suddenly see a big-name star in the role. This isn’t that kind of show.