Four years after FOX’s real-time espionage thriller 24 went off the air in 2010, the network is bringing Counter Terrorism Unit agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) back for the aptly-named 24: Live Another Day, a 12-episode event series that finds the character attempting to thwart a terrorist attack in London. Now, Dexter alumna Yvonne Strahovski has signed on for the series for a key leading role.
The Wrap reports that Strahovski, best known for her role as CIA Agent Sarah Walker on NBC’s much-adored spy comedy Chuck, will play Kate Morgan, “a brilliant but impulsive CIA field operative in London,” who is tasked with chasing Bauer, “a fugitive of a high order,” according to executive producer Evan Katz. If she’s able to bring a cent of Sarah Walker’s charisma to her role on 24: Live Another Day, Strahovski’s casting is certainly a very good thing for the show.
Strahovski joins Sutherland and a large cast of familiar and fresh faces. Hold-overs from the original series include Mary Lynn Rajskub (analyst Chloe O’Brian), Kim Raver (love interest Audrey Raines) and William Devane (Secretary of Defense James Heller). Giles Matthey, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Michael Wincott and Judy Davis rank among the new recruits.
24: Live Another Day will pick up with Jack four years after the conclusion of the show’s eighth season. In typical 24 fashion, the series will cover 24 hours in the life of Jack Bauer, though the compressed episode order means that the show will be forced to skip around in time. Said Katz, “The show will be progressing in the same way it always did, we may just skip two hours [here and there].”
Executive producer Manny Coto offered the following information during the Television Critics Association winter press tour:
At the end of Season 8, Jack was basically left a fugitive on the run. We pick up four years later and Jack is still a fugitive. He is still hunted when the show begins. What will come into play is a character (played by Yvonne Strahovski), a CIA agent who has been on the hunt for Jack Bauer. The show will open with that dynamic: a CIA agent hunting Jack. In their minds, Jack is not quite Osama Bin Laden, but a fugitive of high order. When Jack reenters the story on his own terms, he has a mission. Whether it’s a good mission or a dark mission, we don’t know. But as she comes closer and closer to Jack, Chloe enters the picture and we will learn she has been damaged over these four years. She has turned against the government and almost a more radical [Edward] Snowden-type character. And Jack and Chloe will be forced to stop [someone], in order to protect a secret. That launches the series.
In other 24-related news, Sutherland noted that the impending arrival of Live Another Day doesn’t end the possibility of a long-discussed 24 movie. “The script for the film is very different,” he said. “The film is an ongoing situation. There’s always an opportunity to do that.”
24 aficionados should mark May 5th on their calendars, as that’s when Live Another Day launches with a two-hour premiere. The show will then settle into its regular timeslot at 9 p.m. on Mondays.
Are you excited to witness the return of Jack Bauer this May? Or does 24: Live Another Day seem like an unwarranted revival of a once-great show that should have stayed dead? Sound off in the comments section!