24: Live Another Day: Yvonne Strahovski Joins the Cast to Hunt Jack, Chloe's an Edward Snowden Type, and More
Hello from CTU I mean the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, where Kiefer Sutherland just tortured me until I said I'd tell you guys the details of the 24: Live Another Day panel I sat in on this morning. J/K I only barely got within headlock distance of Sutherland in the coffee line outside the hotel ballroom, and he was on his best behavior. However, I'll tell you what I learned nonetheless:
– The series will run for 12 hour-long episodes, kicking off with a two-hour premiere on Monday, May 5. The story will still cover a 24-hour period, however, giving producers the freedom to jump ahead on the clock as they see fit.
– Live Another Day picks up four years after the events of the Season 8 finale, with Jack on the run. He's been a fugitive the whole time, and he's being hunted by a CIA agent who will stop at nothing to find him.
– And that CIA agent will be played by Yvonne Strahovski! The Chuck and Dexter alum has joined Live Another Day as Kate Morgan, a "brilliant but impulsive" field operative in London, where the new season is set. As the season progresses, and Morgan gets closer and closer to Jack, that's when Chloe O'Brien will enter the picture.
– The producers said that when Chloe does make her entrance, we'll learn that she's quite damaged by the events of her past, on bad terms with Jack, and has turned against the government to become a "more radical, [Edward] Snowden-type character."
– We'll also learn that Jack has a mission, though details on what he's up to are scarce. But Sutherland promised "a large tableau set in London with some crazy events," apologizing in advance for any traffic headaches that filming, which starts soon, might cause. "Things will be blowing up—cars, double-decker busses, things like that" he said.
– Asked whether any additional former cast members will be reprising their roles from the original series—so far we've got Sutherland as Jack Bauer (duh), Mary Lynn Rasjkub as my girl Chloe, Kim Raver as Audrey Raines, and William Devane as James Heller—the producers said they don't have any other announcements to make "for now," and noted that they've had to do plenty of due diligence with regard to which characters are even available to return from a story standpoint. "We keep looking at each other and going, are they dead?" said executive producer Evan Katz. "Sometimes we have to check Wikipedia."
– Sutherland expounding on what's cool about Live Another Day's London setting: "London has some landmarks that are unbelievably significant, and it'll be exciting to shoot with the Tower of London in the background." He didn't mention whether that the show will be blowing up that up, too, but went on to note that throughout every season, the show has somehow followed the president of the United States, and now Live Another Day can follow the president of the United States AND the prime minister of England. "Many times, some kind of treaty involves things we know nothing about, and we'll be examining that," he said.
– Asked whether Live Another Day is using the same story idea that would've driven the long-rumored 24 movie, Sutherland explained that "the script for the film is very different," and that the film itself is "an ongoing kind of situation. Literally, [executive producer] Howard [Gordon] came up with an idea for a 12-episode run of this, and if it ends up rebooting the show or causing a film to be made, so be it." Later on the panel, when asked if he hopes that Live Another Day will result in a 24 reboot, he noted that "I didn't say I would be part of it."
– Perhaps inevitably, the producers were asked to weigh on any new similarities between 24 and Howard Gordon's other show, a little ditty you might have heard of called Homeland. "What's Homeland?" Manny Coto joked before saying that Homeland will have no influence on Live Another Day, noting specifically that the Jack/Chloe dynamic "resembles Carrie/Brody in no way at all."
– Sadly, since Live Another Day has yet to begin filming, there's no new footage to be seen.