At their upfront presentation Monday, NBC presented the first footage from Heroes Reborn , via a jam-packed new trailer for the series. As I type this, NBC have not released the trailer publicly, though that obviously may change soon - or they may hold off releasing it for awhile.

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In the meantime, for those who want to know what the trailer contains, read on. Note that it includes some big reveals/spoilers for the series!Overall, the main takeaway from the trailer is how dark it is. We learn that after the reveal of super powered people at the end of the fourth and final season of the original series, things went sour very quickly for them. Referred to several times as “EVOs”, it seems they were met with fear and hostility, and one character declares, “They’re all gone. They're hiding or dead.”We see imagery of several of the characters from the original series, including case files for some and more direct, ominous images for others – including a picture of Mohinder Suresh marked “EVO Terrorist” and a picture of Claire Bennet included on a memorial, seemingly indicating that she was killed at some point.Her father, Noah (the returning Jack Coleman), insists he is a simple paper salesman, even as a stranger tries to convince him he’s needed and can help – and in an amusing “call to action” moment, he is given a manila envelope and opens it to find a pair of horn rimmed glasses inside.A big reveal is the nature of Zachary Levi’s character, Luke Collins, who we first see sitting in a support group, and declaring, “These powers. They’re not natural. They’re not safe and they can’t be trusted. So as far as I can see, there's only one solution..." At which point he and the woman sitting next to him stand up, pull out guns and shoot and kill everyone else in the group, who presumably, had powers, or perhaps stood by those who did. Yes, Levi looks to be the villain of the story, intent on wiping out all the EVOs – and yes, there is a distinct Days of Future Past vibe (not that Heroes didn’t have plenty of X-Men echoes before) in the path this story is taking.

Heroes Reborn Photo Gallery: Heroes Reborn 3 IMAGES

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We get glimpses at new characters, including a man forced to drag a giant metal ball attached to a shackle on his wrist, weighing him down – until he slices his own hand off, freeing him and letting him launch into the air, showing off his power, as he flies to safety. We see the new character Miko (Kiki Sukezane) opening a case holding a sword inside and glimpses at a costumed, Ninja-like masked character.There were quick glimpses at the other two announced returning characters besides Noah; The Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis) and, most notably, Hiro (Masi Oka) – who is seen in all of his Future Hiro, badass, ponytailed glory.The trailer ends with a woman looking past the camera, speaking to someone, declaring, “This happened faster than we thought. I don’t thin I can control it much longer,” as we see the sky behind her had turned orange, with an eclipse-like image in the center – very much like the one in the Heroes logo.As someone who was among those who loved the first season of Heroes and then felt it quickly began to drop and drop in quality -- and despite some moments and storylines that worked along the way, never fully recovered -- I have to say the trailer was very effective. Heroes pretty much always functioned as an X-Men TV series, and that is clearly still the case, with the widespread revelation about these people existing going into a decidedly intense place for the series.The fact that Levi plays the villain is a fun bit of casting against type, and the use of the original characters looks to be well done. As someone who tired of Hiro the Man Child after four years, the fact that it seems he is at last going to truly be the more confident, capable Future Hiro looks to be a smart move. And while it was a bit cheesy, it also was very fun to have Noah’s glasses treated like his superhero costume, of sort, that he puts back on as he accepts his role in all of this.Heroes Reborn debuts this fall on NBC.