We've waited for the seventh season of 24 for far too long, obviously.  The last season ended in May last year, and since then, the writer's strike has gotten in the way.  That, and the tremendously long period of time that takes for a season of the show to finish, means we have to wait a little longer than usual.  The two-hour prequel, 24: Redemption, already attempted to tie up some loose ends, and if you've seen the first 17 minutes of season 7—available on the Redemption DVD—then you very well know that it's something you've really waited for.

Kiefer Sutherland—you might call him Jack Bauer, but hey, it's almost synonymous already—has been busy during the strike, working on his record label Ironworks, and attempting to get 24 on track even without the writers.  “That was a really frustrating time,” he said.  “We had very little contact with the writers.  After seven years, we were friends.  We talked on that level, but they were very strict about not even talking about the show.  [Co-executive producer] Jon Cassar and I were thinking about which direction the show was going, so we had conversations, but without the writers.  It was really frustrating.”

(Oh, before I continue, there are some spoilers after the jump, so if you're allergic to spoilers, you're better off skipping it.)

But now that the strike is over, everything is going at break-neck speed.  “24 takes up an unbelievable amount of time,” Sutherland explained.  “I'm really trying to do everything to keep that moving forward.  We're already starting to deal with season 8.”

For us, of course, we still have to learn more about the seventh season, which premieres on January 11 on Fox.  If you've seen the trailer, you're probably surprised to see Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) alive and well, after being supposedly killed by a misplaced syringe in day 5.  Sutherland is very wary about giving away details.  “One of the things that's really complicated about talking about 24 is that you can't really give anything away,” he said.  “One of the really clever things the writers did was the manner in which he was brought back.  His death was part of a much larger conspiracy that is, in fact, season 7.”

And then he discusses one of the things that make 24, for him at least, a hard thing to work with: almost everybody gets killed.  “[You] get used to working with people you develop an unbelievable relationship with—not only professionally but personally as well— and then their characters die.  So I was really happy when they brought [Bernard] back.”

And with that, we're still itching to find out how day 7 will turn out.  With Tony alive, Jack still being Jack, and many other things getting a change, it seems that long wait for the new season of 24 will be worth it. Well, hopefully.


-Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
(Image courtesy of Fox)