’24’: Jack Bauer Prequel TV Series in Development at FOX

Jack Bauer extends his on-screen adventures in 24 through showrunner Howard Gordon’s ideas on writing a prequel for the show. 24 is an American TV series that features Bauer, a counterterrorism agent who fights one bad guy at a time. It premiered in November 2001 and ran for eight seasons. It stars Kiefer Sutherland as the show’s lead and Elisha Cuthbert as Bauer’s only daughter, Kim.

According to The Wrap, the 24 prequel series is on its early stages of development as of the moment. Since the new show aims to be an origin story, it might be possible that Sutherland won’t play the role of Bauer. It would have to be a younger actor who will play Bauer. FOX TV Group CEO Dana Walden adds that they are “excited” to where the show could go. As of press writing, FOX has not released a definite premise for the prequel 24.

It is a trend in Hollywood to produce TV shows that tell the prequel of present shows. In the past, NBC released a prequel to the movie trilogy Taken which starred Liam Neeson. The Taken prequel talked about Neeson’s younger days as the father who brought her child back after a kidnapping in a foreign country. Meanwhile, CBS wrote a new timeline on The Big Bang Theory series with Young Sheldon.

In the past, FOX tried to reboot the series multiple times. In 2007, the network launched 24: Legacy which only lasted for a season on-air. The show’s plot failed to catch up and lacked ratings, therefore getting canceled. But before the cancelation, the network also considered other options to keep the show on-air for a while.

The original 24 had 192 episodes from season one to eight before it ended in 2010. A made-for-TV-film 24: Redemption aired simultaneously during the show’s sixth and seventh episode. In 2014, a 12-episode series revival aired, titled 24: Live Another Day.