Fox is high on 24 again in the wake of its well-received miniseries revival 24: Live Another Day, but TV Line reports that the network is looking to bring the popular espionage drama back to television without a very key character: Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer.
According to the site’s report, Fox is planning a 24 spinoff series that will star “a new twentysomething male terrorist hunter.” Bauer could make occasional appearances on the show, linking it to the flagship series, but he won’t be a main player. Instead, the series will be a two-hander between that terrorist hunter (described as an antihero) and an older, more experienced female agent. Yvonne Strahovski, who played Kate Morgan in Live Another Day, could appear on the spinoff, but isn’t playing that aforementioned female agent.
Manny Coto and Evan Catz, who oversaw Live Another Day, will be executive-producing and writing the spinoff, which is expected to debut as a miniseries as Fox tests out whether audiences will respond to a 24 continuation that doesn’t feature Sutherland’s Jack Bauer. It’s a gamble, to be sure, especially given that Live Another Day arrived four years after the 24 series finale and still managed to outstay its welcome.
What that miniseries made abundantly clear was that the world has moved past the violent, vicious approach to the spy genre 24 popularized, with more complex series like Homeland having introduced audiences to a more nuanced treatment of the issues Bauer always seemed to use his brawn and bullets to clear up. Perhaps Fox understands that, which is why it’s bringing 24 back but moving away from the character in favor of new creations that can be better fitted into a more up-to-date show.
Tell us, do you want to see a 24 continuation even if it’s without Jack Bauer? Or would you rather the series go off the air for good now that Live Another Day has given the series yet another swan song?
