An interview with Tim Kring at Scifi Weekly.

How did you come to cast Christopher Eccleston on the show?

Kring: I had seen his work. I'd seen him in Elizabeth, and I'd seen him in 28 Days Later, and I knew who he was. I wanted a British guy. I saw the character as a kind of Fagin character. I wanted a big sort of sloppy Brit with a working-class accent who is this curmudgeonly invisible guy. A real misanthrope. And so the casting people said, "Well, Christopher Eccleston is actually living here now, in America. He's just moved here and is trying to get work here." So it was one of those fortuitous things, where I was like, "I love that guy. Let's go after him." So by the time we finally had a part for him he was really a fan of the show and wanted to do it.

Ha, that's...dare I say...fantastic!

Speaking of Heroes, if I were in charge, the next words out of Hiro 's father 's mouth would be either 1. "Son, there's something I have to tell you. Your real name is Hiro Linderman...." or 2. "Your mother has been on my back for years to tell you this, and now she's just going to gloat for a week...."

But that is just speculation, and I'm sure the reality will show definitively why the writers are getting paid to write and I'm not.

Ow. Stop the whitefont.

I can't explain why it pains me so, so I'll just settle on the fact that it's unnecessary work for writer and reader.

As said before, no one actually said looking at any point. Ted evidently talked to him and Eden (who worked with him) referred to him as Haitian. No one's come to that from appearance.

Um, no.

The reason I was thrown was not FANNISH identification of the character, it was canonical references to him. (Similarly my WTF about Neveen Andrews being automatically assumed to be an Arab is about the characters' canonical responses to the physical person of Said (Sayeed?), rather than fannish identification of the character as an Arab.)

Mind Reading Cop and Big Burny Death Guy both described him thus, and bonded over it, without either of them knowing a damn thing about his name or whence he came. They both described him as Haitian from looking at him. Off the top of my head I don't have the quotations, but I'll go see if I can find them. Because my mighty WTF was from watching the show and wondering why the hell both of them knew he was Haitian just from a glimpse of him.*

eta Okay, Google isn't giving me any love with transcripts, but I'm sufficiently certain of this - it threw me out of the show - that I'll go through my DVDs when I get home and check the actual lines and the episode for you.

*the best handwaving I can do is that it's a suppressed memory - that they both learned that he was Haitian and subsequently forgot, but still know on some subconscious level.

Fay, I got the impression from the conversation between the cop and the nuclear guy that they "knew" he was Haitian but didn't know how. Like it was residue from his influence on them or something, like a mental signature. I don't think we're supposed to know exactly how they both "knew" it, yet.

I also skipped ahead to post this, so apologies for any x-post.

Mind reading cop still swears that HRG turned his powers on, so there's some confusion there.

I don't think there's any possible way that we're expected to believe that any character thought the Haitian was Haitian just by looking at him. That's why I misread your question. How they knew? Dunno. But I'm still convinced.

Popping in to say that all of you who are calling Nathan as Claire's father are, I think, brilliant. I have no idea whether it's true, but I love it.

It did not occur to me that Ted was just guessing that the Haitian dude was Haitian; my assumption, even thought it wasn't shown to me, is that he knew it to be true, though I don't know why he had that knowledge. (I also misunderstood your first post until I got to your clarifying one.)

I don't think it's true. Watching the promo during FNL made me think it was somebody we haven't met yet.