James Kyson Lee (Ando) To Become a Regular in Season 2?

Is Ando Masahashi going to continue his sidekick ways in Season 2 as Hiro’s fellow cubicle dweller turned full-fledged sidekick? It would appear so, according to James Kyson Lee himself. In the past, there were questions as to whether Lee would even come back in any capacity in Season 2 besides the occasional cameo (what with Hiro being trapped in the past and whatnot), but Lee himself seems to have settled the question via the National Ledger:

James Kyson Lee’s Ando Masahashi becomes “a full-fledged regular” on “Heroes” in the new season, the actor is glad to report. As far as he is concerned, Ando, who started off as the rather reckless and feckless pal of Hiro (Masi Oka) on the NBC hit, “has gone through one of the biggest growth transformations of all the characters. He started off thinking Hiro was living in a fantasyland, but slowly became a believer. Now he’s started spearheading some of their actions. He’s an important part of this mission, even though he doesn’t have powers right now. That’s something people can latch onto — the idea of facing danger knowing you’re mortal and don’t have super abilities. Ando plays the perspective of an audience member, and asks a lot of the questions viewers would ask.”

I’m not sure if Lee told the National Ledger that, or if they picked it up somewhere, because the Ledger guys didn’t source their article either way. I’m still waiting for Kring and company to announce this, or for Lee to post about it on his Myspace page.