Brian Grazer describes 24: Legacy

Fox has released two short audio clips of 24: Legacy Executive Producer Brian Grazer describing how the new show operates on the same basic principles as the original 24. Listen to them below or read our transcript.

Re: 24: LEGACY operates on the same basic principles as the original “24”

“What attracted audiences in the original 24 is the same basis of what will attract them today. It’s that we as a country are rooting for humanity. And in order to root for humanity, we create laws and rules that legislate that. Sometimes though, those laws prevent us from getting bad guys. And so this character [Eric] Carter, has to be the guy that can do things that help preserve humanity and peace for our country, but at the same time has to ultimately find ways to get through that red tape.”

Re: Why the creative team wanted to do a new spin on “24” with 24: LEGACY

“There were so many people that were such huge proponents of 24 the show in it’s original form. And just loved that in a way each year was kind of prescient as to what was going on in our social cultural militaristic world that we live in. And these writers – Manny, Evan, and Howard, always found a way to sort of intersect with what was going on in the planet and putting it in the show. And it often in the show gave life to something that we didn’t know what was going to happen.

We felt like we should continue this show. We did get it on its ninth year, but it just wasn’t enough, the audience really wanted much more of 24. And so between Dana and Gary and Howard, we just kept lobbying for this thing to come to life again. And we found this sort of perfect configuration of doing this show, actually without Jack Bauer, but with a character that is tough – black ops, that kind of a guy that can actually accomplish the wish fulfillment that Jack Bauer very credibly did in the first eight years of that show.

So we found a way to reconstruct 24 so that it operates today in today’s world with today’s problem – militaristic and political – in the same way that the first eight years did. But we’re doing it now with a different actor other than Kiefer Sutherland, other than the character of Jack Bauer, but someone that’s extremely competent that can do the same sort of wish fulfillment that Jack Bauer did in the first eight years. His name is Corey Hawkins who starred in “Straight Outta Compton”. The show also incorporates kind of the power dynamics that the first show had and the stylistic and cinematic construction that the first show had, but in a new and modern, original form.”