Kiefer Sutherland says a new 24 already has a ‘really good idea’ — so what is stopping Jack Bauer?
Kiefer Sutherland says he ‘misses the show’ and there’s fresh movement on a 24 revival — raising hopes Jack Bauer might clock back in.
If you thought we’d truly seen the last of Jack Bauer running about, torturing baddies, and yelling into various mobile phones, think again. Kiefer Sutherland is once more flirting with the idea of picking up Bauer’s battered badge. Turns out, there’s already a promising concept kicking around for another go at 24 — it’s just not as simple as firing up the CTU alarms and cracking open a can of Red Bull.
Kiefer Sutherland, speaking at a FanX Salt Lake panel, explained: "I don’t believe it’s a rights issue. It’s just the people who have the rights have to have the will and want to make it."
Where things actually stand
Sutherland didn’t waste much time getting to the heart of it: there’s no legal war over who owns Jack Bauer, but the companies holding the IP (now mostly Disney and remnants of Fox) need to actually decide they want to make more of it. No turf battles, just corporate inertia — which checks out, if you’ve ever tried getting anything out of old media conglomerates.
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He made a point of praising Howard Gordon (longtime exec producer) and Joel Surnow (co-creator and, apparently, a 'big idea' bloke) for keeping the creative drive alive. Sutherland reckons there’s already a “really good idea in place”, and he’s just as hungry to come back as ever. His words sum it up best:
“I miss the character. I miss the show. I miss making something that made people so happy, and so I can only hope that it happens really soon because no one wants to see an old, kind of limping Jack Bauer. So, yeah, we’ll see what happens.”
Is it definitely happening?
No — not yet. There’s no green light, release date, or schedule. But Sutherland’s been teasing this for a while. Fans may recall a similar update in September 2025, when he said Gordon had already written some fresh material he called “really good” and “really strong”. At the time, Sutherland also pointed out that recent shifts—namely Disney gobbling up portions of Fox—added a few annoying layers of bureaucracy before anything can start filming.
As for where we last saw Bauer: the character’s story was left wide open after 24: Live Another Day in 2014, with Jack shipped off to Russia, voluntarily, for a bit of light political imprisonment. Sutherland’s expressed interest in actually resolving that plot thread, instead of leaving Bauer stuck in a Moscow cell for all eternity.
Adding to the confusion, Variety reported back in 2024 that there was a 24 film in early development at 20th Century Studios – but nobody confirmed if Sutherland was set to return (or if it was another legacy sequel with an all-new cast, which seems frankly mad).
24 still doesn’t have a release date or confirmed production start.