The Clock is Ticking: Kiefer Sutherland on the Agonizing Wait for Jack Bauer's Return
You don't just watch “24.” You endure it. You white-knuckle your way through its relentless, heart-pounding, morally murky chaos. And at the center of that storm, for nine glorious years and one stellar limited series, was Jack Bauer—a man who redefined the action hero by being less a hero and more a devastating, necessary force of nature. A man who saved the world more times than we can count, only to be left rotting in a Russian gulag.
That unresolved, gut-punch of an ending from 2014's “24: Live Another Day” has festered with fans for a decade. It's a bleak, poetic, and frankly perfect conclusion for a character forged in the post-9/11 fire… and yet, wholly unsatisfying. We need closure. We need justice. We need to know.
And according to the man who is Jack Bauer, we might just get it.
In a recent interview with Montreal Now that feels less like a tease and more like a genuine status update, Kiefer Sutherland pulled back the curtain on the long, complex journey to bring Bauer back to our screens. The news? It's the best we've had in years. The reality? It's tangled in the byzantine machinery of modern Hollywood.
The key revelation isn't just Sutherland's enduring passion—we knew that. It's that the elusive, crucial ingredient has finally materialized: a worthy script. “Howard Gordon has come up with an idea that I like,” Sutherland stated, with a tone that feels more concrete than the usual hopeful murmurs from the convention circuit. “Something has been written. I think it's really good. I think it's really strong.”
For anyone who's followed this saga, that's monumental. This has always been the stumbling block—the “why” to bring him back that justifies the “how.” Not just a victory lap, but a story worth telling. Gordon, the show's legendary showrunner and executive producer, has apparently cracked it.
But here's where the classic “24” tension shifts from on-screen to off-. The obstacle is no longer a terrorist cell or a corrupt president. It's corporate acquisition. As Sutherland notes, “24 was originally with Fox. Now it's owned by Disney because of what Fox has sold off, and so it has to go through different channels before it's either approved or disapproved.”
It's a surreal sentence. Jack Bauer, the antithesis of Disneyfied content, now waiting on a greenlight from the house of mouse. The bureaucratic suspense is almost more agonizing than any bomb threat. Sutherland, ever the professional, frames it with pragmatic hope: “Like everybody else, it's something I would really like to do. I would like to close that story… So, fingers crossed. There's a chance. We've taken some considerable steps forward.”
Considerable steps. Not all the steps. The clock is ticking, but we don't know how much time is left.
This isn't just nostalgia bait. The landscape of action television that “24” bulldozed has evolved, but its DNA is everywhere—from the real-time gimmicks of “Sherlock” to the paranoid conspiracies of “Jack Ryan.” Bringing Bauer back now isn't a rehash; it's a recalibration. A chance to let a pre-streaming icon loose in a new era, to question whether his brand of brutal efficiency has a place in our current world. The dramatic potential is… intense.
So we wait. We hope. And we remember the sweat-soaked tension, the shocking twists, the iconic “dammit!”s. The promise of a proper ending is finally on the table, script in hand. Now we just have to see if the suits at the Magic Kingdom have the stomach for one more very, very long day.
What do you think? Is a Disney-owned “24” a dream scenario or a fundamental mismatch?
The Big Intel: Jack Bauer's Potential Return
The Script is (Finally) Here
Howard Gordon has delivered a story treatment that has Kiefer Sutherland's full endorsement—a major hurdle finally cleared after years of development hell.
The New Corporate Overlord
The fate of “24” no longer rests at Fox but with Disney, adding a new layer of corporate approval the project must navigate before moving forward.
Sutherland's Personal Stake
The actor is openly invested in returning, specifically to provide closure for a character whose story was “left kind of wide open” a decade ago.
A Decade of Waiting
It has been exactly ten years since Jack Bauer was last seen in the 2014 limited series “24: Live Another Day,” making the timing of this news particularly resonant for long-time fans.
The “Legacy” Precedent
The failed 2017 spin-off, “24: Legacy,” which did not feature Sutherland, proves the franchise can stumble without its iconic lead, raising the stakes for this potential comeback.
The Bottom Line
This is the most promising update in a decade, but it remains firmly in “wait and see” mode, contingent entirely on a corporate greenlight from Disney.
