Spock 2.0 beams down at EW

We’ve officially been Spocked: On Dec. 3, a few hours before his alter ego, Sylar, regained his powers on Heroes, Zachary Quinto dropped by EW’s New York offices. Production on that episode had wrapped long ago; now he was on a break from filming his role as the beloved Vulcan in J.J. Abrams’ reimagination of Star Trek. He was pretty tight-lipped about Trek, an origin story that’s partly set at the Starfleet Academy. But he said we’ll know within a matter of weeks whether his Heroes costar and Abrams regular Greg Grunberg (Lost, Alias) will appear in Trek. And he happily removed his oversize horn-rimmed glasses to show off his super-arched eyebrows, which have been shaved for the role. No waxing or threading for Quinto: ”I wouldn’t do anything that was going to affect the root.” Smart.

As for Spock’s most iconic feature? For three hours each day, Quinto says he sits in the makeup room, where he’s outfitted with silicone ears and silently curses genetics: His lobes are attached, whereas original Spock Leonard Nimoy has ”the biggest earlobes you’ve ever seen. But it feels good to change it up, put on some pointy ears, and shave my eyebrows for the role.” Sure, he’d say that — the time-consuming physical transformation is easy compared with what lies ahead in 2008. Quinto, who is already recognized as Sylar (”People are sometimes really scared of me…but I laugh at them”), is jittery about next year’s Comic-Con, where he’ll contend with rabid fans from two separate sci-fi cult hits. Nimoy’s reaction when he learned that Quinto had taken over his role sums it up best: ”You’re screwed.”