24: Legacy Writers: “we have plans” for returning characters

Mike Novick, Aaron Pierce, Tony Almeida, Belcheck please.

It feels like they are marketing this as a continuation of 24, and not a separate show. The official 24 twitter and Facebook pages have switched to 24 Legacy, instead of having their own separated accounts. In contrast, Better Call Saul has its own social media accounts, and it’s considered a completely separate show from Breaking Bad.

This show has the real time, the ticking clock, the same creative team, and the fans of the original series are expected to watch this. It doesn’t feel that much different than the casting shakeup in season 4, or the DC, New York, and London settings of seasons 7-8 and LAD. And if Chloe, Tony, and others return and have their storylines continued/resolved in Legacy, then it will be very similar to those season.

That’s why this feels more like a sequel than a spinoff. A spinoff wouldn’t require the real time or CTU (but it could be set in the same universe).

Sutherland exercised the same caution after the 2014 success of 24: Live Another Day (which sparked the limited series revival of other past hits like The X-Files, Heroes and the upcoming Prison Break), even as Fox was eager for another 24 installment. Sutherland resisted, believing the show would be breaking its promise to fans. “The whole hook to get an audience back to watch it was, this is a onetime deal, so you should watch it—and then, when it worked out for us, go, oh, we decided to do another one? I don’t think that’s right,” he says. “And how many bad days can one guy have before it starts to look stupid? Probably about seven, but we did nine!”

“We love Kiefer so much. If he had wanted to do 24, we would have done a Jack Bauer version of it,” confirms Gary Newman, co-CEO and co-chairman, Fox Television Group. “But he felt it was time to rest that character.” Instead, Fox pursued a new iteration of the show, sans Jack Bauer. Sutherland, who had maintained for years that the franchise could and should continue on without him (“The truth is, I’ve always believed that the star of that show was the idea of putting a time restriction on it,” he explains), still remained involved in the process, serving as a “sounding board” for executive producer Howard Gordon as he brainstormed story ideas for what would become 24: Legacy.

Given his collaboration with Gordon, Fox asked Sutherland to sign on to 24: Legacy as an executive producer, which Sutherland says he was honored to do. While the actor says he’s “not directly involved in” the new series beyond broad story discussions, Fox’s Newman maintains that having the actor on board in some capacity was important to the network. “Hopefully, it sends a message to the fans that this is not disloyal to Kiefer, and that they’re able to embrace this new cast,” he says.

Sutherland’s decision to pass on another season of 24 doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Jack Bauer, however. “I know never to say that. It doesn’t mean that we can’t make the [long-in-the-works 24] film,” says Sutherland. “It’s a character that I love until the day I die.” Gordon publicly expressed hope earlier this year that Sutherland would make an appearance on 24: Legacy, but Sutherland clarifies that “there is absolutely no plan” for that. If he does ever return as Bauer, Sutherland vows, “it will not ever be a series again.”