TVSquad

One of the Heroes is going to die this season. And not just one of the disposable ones that aren't important to the plot, but one of the main characters.

That's the news being reported by TV Guide and others. So which one will it be? There are even rumors going around that both Ali Larter and Hayden Panettiere want to leave the show, so they are both possibilities. Here's a quick analysis on each main character. Let's see if we can narrow down who could be the hero to kick the bucket (and I'm assuming it's really kick the bucket, not Heroes kick the bucket where they could still come back to life).

Ali Larter. She could be the one to go, since they have already gotten rid of a couple of the characters that Larter has played, getting rid of her altogether could be the way to go. She has never been a fan favorite (though I've always liked her), and her son Micah isn't on the show anymore (unless Nikki survived that explosion...).
so there's no big reason to keep her on board. Tracy is a major character, but a major character that's kinda on the fringe of things. So Larter could be the one to go.

Hayden Panettiere. The first two seasons, Claire was really important ("save the cheerleader," etc), but they could have Claire's blood or antibodies save the world and Claire dies in HRG's arms.

Adrian Pasdar. He's turned evil this season, so maybe he'll be the one to die. After he changes his ways and saves the other heroes at the last moment in a heroic gesture, of course.

Zachary Quinto. Hey, he's Spock in the new Star Trek flick, so maybe he wants to switch to the movies. Maybe Sylar will die at the end of this season and we'll have a new character as the bad killer next season.

Milo Ventimiglia. Peter could also save the other heroes at the last minute and then die a big savior. But Peter is one of the major major characters of Heroes, so that would be a big loss.

Greg Grunberg. Matt is a possibility I guess. But Matt seems to be one of the keys to whatever the mystery is this season, and I just don't see Grunberg leaving the show.

Jack Coleman. HRG is bad, then he's good, then he's good/bad, and now he's bad/good (probably). I don't see Coleman ever leaving the show. The character is a good link between all of the various characters, good and bad, and this is a good gig for Coleman.

Sendhil Ramamurthy. If we're trying to analyze this simply by the characters, then Suresh could easily go. He's been the narrator on the show since the start, but they could always get another (or have no narrator at all, there have been plenty of episodes without one). And with what happened to Suresh the first half of this season, I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to leave the show or writers thought they have gone as far as they can with the character. I'd like to see him stick around. Just strip his powers away and have him be a normal guy trying to figure everything out again.

Masi Oka. Hiro is too cute to die.

I guess it's always possible that when the rumors say a "major" character dies they're referring to characters that really aren't major, like Angela or The Haitian. We'll have to wait until the end of the season I guess. And by "end of the season" I mean a few weeks before the end of the season when the news leaks.