While we won’t have Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer around to yell at people while being invincible in the upcoming 24: Legacy, the reboot is offering up both a male lead and a female lead, and it’s just been announced that actress Miranda Otto will go from the international terrorism of Homeland to a more domestic threat at CTU.
Otto will face the clear and present danger as Rebecca Ingram, whose former gig as the head of CTU speaks to her large intelligence and leadership skills. She left that life behind and is currently married to the currently not-yet-cast Senator John Donovan, but there’s a part of her that is having doubts about quitting her old job. Those regrets will likely come into play as the central plotline kicks into high gear, putting her right back in the crossfire.
Straight Outta Compton star Corey Hawkins was recently cast as co-lead Eric Carter, a former Army Ranger whose past comes back to haunt both him and potentially the entire country. He is forced to temporarily leave behind his peaceful marriage and home life to seek assistance from CTU, as well as Rebecca Ingram in some way, to keep him and everyone else safe. Should 24: Legacy get past the pilot stage and ordered to series, we’ll likely see Rebecca sharing legendary stories about Jack Bauer to give Eric inspiration and adrenaline rushes.
Sadly, we can likely rule out any appearances from Bauer and every other 24 character we ever got to know over the show’s 9-season-and-a-TV-movie run. Of course, it’s possible that future success could lead to former cast members making cameos, but the plan at this point is to tell a brand new story about brand new people experiencing brand new threats. According to EW, viewers would likely have to get used to the real-time element getting altered to account for 12 episodes instead of all 24, similar to what was done with the limited series 24: Live Another Day.
Otto, who took the part that millions of people wanted Yvonne Strahovski to get, was likely a frontrunner for the role from the beginning, as the casting call reportedly requested “a Miranda Otto-type.” Howard Gordon is a producer on both Homeland and the 24 franchise, so it probably wasn’t a huge challenge to get her into conversations about the role. However it happened, we’re jazzed for it, as Otto never fails to be compelling in anything she’s in.
You might recall Miranda Otto from the big screen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as seen above, as well as What Lies Beneath, War of the Worlds and I, Frankenstein. Her small screen roles over the past decade were on shows such as Cashmere Mafia and the shortlived Rake, and she’s also a part of the cast of HBO’s Westworld, assuming its random troubles don’t keep it from airing one day. And, spoiler alert, she won’t be coming back to Homeland Season 6, so hopefully 24: Legacy gets picked up.
We expect a lot more casting from 24: Legacy in the coming weeks as the pilot nears its production start, so stay tuned.
