On April 15, 2019, it was discovered that a private server based on City of Heroes at the time of its shutdown had been running in secret for six years following the game's discontinuation. Three days later, the source code for this server was distributed, leading to the creation of a public server based on the code. Although this server was shut down by April 22 due to possible legal threats, multiple servers based on this code had since been set up. The most prominent of these offshoot servers was known as "Homecoming", who even went as far as to negotiate with NCsoft for the legal right to keep the server running. Years later, their efforts would pay off, as on January 4, 2024, it was announced that the team behind "Homecoming" had acquired a server license to run an official version of City of Heroes and its expansions, free to play and funded by donations.

The NPC superhero Coyote, who appeared during the in-game tutorials, was based on the player Mathew Bragg, who went by the alias Kiyotee and had passed away soon after the game's release. Bragg was actively involved in the game's community and often welcomed and assisted new members who had joined.