Kiefer Sutherland Mulls 24 Revival Scenarios, Says Rescuing Jack From the Russians Is 'An Interesting Idea'

TV’s erstwhile Jack Bauer, Kiefer Sutherland, says there are a variety of ways to restart the clock with 24.

A groundbreaking Fox series in which episodes played out in real time and spanned a 24-hour day, 24 debuted in November 2001 and ran for eight straight seasons, including a 24: Redemption TV-movie that landed between Days 6 and 7.

Years later, in May 2014, Sutherland would resume his role as forever-rogue CTU agent Jack Bauer for 24: Live Another Day. Then in February 2017, Corey Hawkins headlined 24: Legacy, which did not involve Jack Bauer — who is still imprisoned in Russia, as far as we know! — but did bring back series vet Carlos Bernard as former CTU director Tony Almeida.

Sutherland told EW.com that he and Howard Gordon, one of 24′s primary exec producers, “talk all the time, and invariably it comes up…. The idea of [Jack] being brought back — I’m just spitballing — I think that’s an interesting idea. You introduce a new cast of people in their effort to get him out [of Russia], and it lives on from that point. There’s a lot of ways to go about it.”

Previously… on the perpetual inquiry into new 24 episodes…

More than three years ago, then-Fox entertainment chief Michael Thorn told TVLine that the network had scrapped a pair of offshoot ideas — one of which would’ve centered on a young Jack Bauer — that were in early stages of development. “We had been circling two ideas for 24 spinoffs and those ideas are not moving forward,” Thorn confirmed. “But we’re constantly looking at other opportunities to keep the title resonant, for us and the fans.”

Then in September 2021, Thorn said, “There’s still a possibility, there’s still some discussions with the producers on a take that we have yet to hear. There [are] some active creative discussions that are happening.”

Sutherland himself said in the new EW.com piece that there are many ways that 24 — or at least its trademark real-time format — could be revived, with or without him.

“It’s such a great idea to take a 24-hour moment in somebody’s life that is desperate — and that could be a fireman; that could be so many different circumstances,” the actor suggested. “[T]o do something in real time is so clever — difficult, but clever — that I find it kind of shocking that it hasn’t manifested itself into something else and/or bigger.”

Sutherland next can be seen headlining Rabbit Hole, a different kind of sly thriller premiering this Sunday, March 26, on Paramount+.

Launch Gallery: <i>24</i>'s Best 25 Characters, Ranked!