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’24’ Returning To Fox In February — But With One Major Change [Video Trailer]

By Greg Hoadley
Published on: 01:14 PST, May 17, 2016

24, the popular post-9/11 action show that featured Kiefer Sutherland fighting terrorists with each season representing a 24-hour day (and each episode being an hour within that day), is returning to TV this February 5 following the Super Bowl, Deadline is reporting.

The second episode will play the following night, Monday, February 6, and subsequent episodes will be aired on Monday night. Unlike the original series, the new 24 will only be 12 episodes.

However, 24 fans may be disappointed to learn that Kiefer Sutherland, who played Jack Bauer, the terrorist fighter who often took matters into his own hands and violated protocol to beat the bad guys, will not be returning. Instead, Deadline reports that while Bauer will remain as an executive producer for the new show, called 24: Legacy, he will star as an unlikely president in a new show for ABC called Designated Survivor.

But Brian Grazer, who produced the original 24 series and will be back in the same role for the new show, told the New York Times that Bauer may make a cameo appearance.

“Was I not supposed to reveal that?” he quipped. “Oh, well. I just did.”

As for 24: Legacy, the focus will be upon Eric Carter, whom the Times described as “a young, tormented Army Ranger who is being hunted by terrorists.”

Carter will be played on the new 24 by Corey Hawkins, a Juilliard-trained actor.

“The fact that he is an African-American hero is not irrelevant,” Grazer told the Times. “As a series, ‘24‘ was prescient about what was going on in the culture. We want to do that again.”

What’s The New 24: Legacy About?

The plot for 24: Legacy centers around a group of six Navy Seals who performed a top-secret raid that was so dangerous they now have to live in the witness protection program. But when these men start to disappear, the others begin to get nervous, as it turns out that one of them took a device from the terrorists, not knowing that it is crucial to their carrying out a new attack on the U.S.

A subplot in 24: Legacy, the Times notes, centers around a former Counter Terrorism Unit chief who is married to a U.S. Senator with presidential aspirations (played by veteran actor Jimmy Smits of L.A. Law, NYPD Blue, and The West Wing) is forced to return to CTU, which potentially puts her in harm’s way.

The original 24 ran for eight seasons, from 2001 to 2010, for 204 episodes. After the show’s run ended, plans to produce a feature film version of 24 were announced. But after six years of writing, production, and scheduling conflicts, Sutherland told TV Line in January 2016 that he had “no idea if the 24 movie will ever happen, or Jack Bauer might end up finding his way into an episode one day and clarifying all of that, or ending all of that” — a likely reference to 24: Legacy.

Kiefer Sutherland of the original 24 series
Kiefer Sutherland of the original 24 series might make an appearance in 24: Legacy. [Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images]
In 2013, Hitfix reported that 24: Live Another Day would air as a 12-part miniseries would air on Fox. It eventually premiered in 2014, with just a few of the earlier cast members and many newer faces.

What do you think? Can the new 24: Legacy match up to the original 24 with Kiefer Sutherland? Be sure to sound off in the comment section below.

[Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images]

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