Hayden Panettiere was "shocked" to find out about the new Heroes series.

The 24-year-old actress - who played teen cheerleader Claire Bennet from 2006-2010 in the original show - has not been asked to join the recently-announced miniseries Heroes: Reborn and only found out about the project from a family member.

"It was a shock to me. In fact, I believe I became privy to that through my cousin. She sent me a text message and told me about it. I mean, we had nothing, nothing to do with it. It will definitely be interesting to see how they reinvent that."

The Nashville actress - who is engaged to boxer Wladimir Klitschko - has mixed feelings about the new show, and hopes not to see anyone taking over the role of Claire: "It's a little bit of an interesting feeling because you go, 'That was our show, our home, our family,' something that we had a major part in creating. I mean, I hope that they don't have somebody else playing our characters, hat would be a little dagger in the heart. But, you never know. I wish them success in it, for sure."