24 is coming back. Could Jack Bauer, too?
I'm in Austin at the moment for the ATX Television Festival, and one of the events I moderated today was a career retrospective with writer Howard Gordon, who's worked on (and, in many cases, run) The X-Files, 24, Homeland, and Tyrant.
Late in the discussion, we got to talking about FOX's upcoming 24 sequel series, 24: Legacy, which will star Corey Hawkins from Straight Outta Compton as its new hero. Kiefer Sutherland has another acting job coming up on ABC's Designated Survivor, but late in our conversation, Gordon suggested he could reprise his most famous role down the road, too.
Gordon suggested that he arguably should have ended the 24: Live Another Day miniseries with Jack's death, but that neither he nor any of the other writers could bring themselves to do it. And he said he thought there was still life in the character, whether in a standalone movie (a concept long-discussed, and which morphed at one point into Live Another Day) or an appearance on Legacy. Gordon said that Sutherland – who's an executive producer on 24: Legacy – “hasn't ruled out” the idea of reprising Jack on the new show if the circumstances were right.
What does everybody else think? Would you rather Legacy be a completely clean break from the original series? Does 24 by any name need Jack to stop by at some point? Or do you feel his story has been more than told by now?