This, it's fair to say, is not the news that fans of Heroes will have been wanted. Because it's being reported over at AintItCoolNews that Bryan Fuller has quit the show for a second time.

Fuller was instrumental in the success of the show's first, and best, season, and the way that Heroes spluttered across its second and third seasons was partly attributed to the fact that Fuller had left the show. At that point, he'd gone to develop and make Pushing Daisies, and it was only after that show was canned that it was announced he'd be returning to Heroes.

Fuller only managed to have an influence on the back quarter of Heroes' third season, but there was an increased confidence about season four, off the back of Fuller's involvement. And yet he's now left Heroes again - presumably for the last time - to go and work on two pilots that are currently in development.
Fuller is quoted as saying, "Development was really starting to heat up, and it appears like I may be writing multiple pilots for NBC so that wasn't leaving a ton of room for 'Heroes', unfortunately. We crafted some really great arcs for the season that I'm excited to see come to fruition. I love that cast dearly and am sad to go, but the plate -- she was over-flowing."

There's already, inevitably, Internet chatter that this could be a fatal blow to Heroes in the long term, but we'll wait and see what season four has to offer before working out if that's likely to be the case. In the meantime, the AintItCool story is here.