The 24 franchise became a huge hit for Fox, and Kiefer Sutherland became a household name and action star thanks to his role as Jack Bauer. Now that TV is in an era or reboots, remakes, and revivals, it didn't come as a huge shock that Fox brought the franchise back with 24: Legacy, starring The Walking Dead's Corey Hawkins. Legacy didn't make a huge impression with viewers, but Fox isn't necessarily done with 24 yet. The series may now get a prequel with the original creators on board.
Fox is reportedly looking into developing a prequel of the 24 series, which would follow Jack Bauer in his days before becoming the badass agent we all knew and loved/feared during the original run of the show. The first season didn't exactly give the impression that Jack was used to spending a full 24 hours racing at a breakneck pace (with the constant potential to break necks) to save the country from destruction, so the prequel wouldn't follow Jack on another 24-hour adventure. No, the prequel would be an ongoing series. No limits involved. Original series creators Joel Surnow and Bob Cochran are working together with executive producer Howard Gordon, according to THR. If the prequel happens, we can probably expect that it holds true to the tone of the original series, even if the format and cast is quite different.
Given that this is a prequel, Kiefer Sutherland is out of the running to reprise his role as Jack unless the new show brought him back in a How I Met Your Mother kind of way. I don't expect that this would be too huge of a disappointment for Sutherland. Even though his ABC series Designated Survivor got the axe this spring, Sutherland really seemed to have left Jack Bauer behind. That said, the pressure would be on the producers to find a young actor who could step into Sutherland's shoes to play a new version of this iconic character.
Corey Hawkins played a new character in his season of 24, and while Legacy got off to a strong start, the ratings dwindled and the show was cancelled. We can't say if the problem with Legacy is that 24 fans are more invested in the character of Jack Bauer than in the actual premise of 24, but whatever the issue, Legacy didn't successfully relaunch the franchise with another character leading the action.
News of the potential prequel comes after months of hints that 24 was not finished as a franchise. An idea was floated that the storytelling would become more anthological from season to season rather than serialized like previous years, and rumor had it that Fox was aiming to deliver a 24 that would follow a female attorney racing against the ticking clock to exonerate a death row inmate, and Fox announced back in May that the original 24 creators were working on more 24.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV news. There's no saying when we might get to see a 24 prequel, but our fall TV schedule can show you what you can watch in the coming months.
