It was bound to happen sooner or later. I mean, you just cannot keep Jack Bauer down, no matter how hard you try. Today, Fox has closed a deal with Kiefer Sutherland to return to his role as Bauer for a limited series of 24.
Fox is really making a push for these so-called ‘event series’ – it also just greenlit M. Night Shyamalan’s Wayward Pines, starring Matt Dillon as a Secret Service agent. But the return of Bauer is unsurprising. 24 was mammothly successful, despite its sometimes controversial treatment of little things like torture. When the 24 movie fizzled – what did happen with that? – it was really only a matter of time before Bauer et al returned to the small screen.
What do they have in store for us? Fox President Kevin Reilly told New York Daily News that the new 24 will actually be more like 12, as it takes place over 12 hours. But otherwise, it will likely be more of the same: shoot-em-up, save the world from terrorists/corrupt governments/Nazis or something like that.
While 24 will not be a regular series, Reilly notes that there’s always the possibility of sequels. So this could go on ad infinitum into the far distant future. In other words, Fox has ahold a good thing (again) and intends to milk it for all it’s worth.
I was never a big 24 person to begin with, but I’ll be interested to see how this series does now, several years on. The political climate has certainly changed in the world since the last time Mr. Bauer was waving his gun about.
24 is likely going to hit next May. We’ll soon know if Fox’s gambling on these event series will pay off.
Are you excited for the return of Jack Bauer? Or is this one gamble that Fox really should not take? Let us know in the comments.
