Ask anyone who regularly watched Heroes during its initial run on NBC, and they’ll tell you the same story: The series, which began as a ratings juggernaut for the network, tapered off both creatively and in viewership as the years went on.

Even series creator Tim Kring — who now helms the upcoming limited-series revival Heroes Reborn — acknowledges the sophomore slump into which Heroes fell.

“The biggest pitfall was always the amount of story that we had to tell,” Kring said Thursday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills. “Our [episode] order was for 23 the first year, then 26 in the second year, 25 in the third year. We were facing a mathematical difficulty, an uphill battle.”

Heroes Reborn, on the other hand, will only span 13 episodes, which Kring insisted will allow for a more “aggressive kind of storytelling,” one that gives “the show and the audience this exhilarating feeling. When you log onto this show for the very first time, you know that you’re going to get an end, and it will be at that point in time.”

That’s not to say Kring won’t consider going beyond that baker’s dozen. Although he has only “spoken about doing this [one season]” with NBC, Kring has “always felt the brand was elastic enough and with a broad enough premise… that I feel confident we could find other stories to tell with new characters and some recurring characters.”

Heroes Reborn launches with a two-hour premiere on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 8/7c. Will you be tuning in? Drop all your thoughts on the revival in a comment below.