Hey! Underneath that beard! It's Ned Ryerson!Photo: Getty Images

There are plenty of wonderful tidbits revealed in today's Entertainment Weekly cover story previewing the new season of Heroes: Hiro gets to romance a Japanese princess. The super-baddie hinted at in last season's finale will be revealed in episode five. There'll be a Katrina story line, which frankly makes us nervous. But the best news of all — even better than the additions of Veronica Mars and Sark to the cast — is that the new head of the mysterious hero project, for which Claire's dad used to work, will be played by Stephen Tobolowsky.

Yes, Stephen Tobolowsky: patron saint of character actors; foreword writer of Adam Sternbergh's book, Hey! It's That Guy!; the dude from Entourage and Deadwood and ten million other shows; Ned Ryerson from Groundhog Day. Stephen Tobolowsky! Now that is some excellent casting.

'Heroes' Comes Out Swinging [EW]
Stephen Tobolowsky [IMDb]