’24: Legacy’ could feature Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in some form

Maybe we were all wrong to write off completely the possibility of Jack Bauer turning up on Fox’s upcoming “24: Legacy.”

While at the ATX TV Festival on Friday (per Deadline), show executive producer Howard Gordon confirmed that there have at least been discussions about whether or not Kiefer Sutherland, who remains an executive producer on the project, could end up turning in a guest spot on the revival premiering early next year. However, there has been nothing laid out as concrete as of yet.

For those wondering how this is possible given that Kiefer has another acting gig on ABC’s “Designated Survivor,” typically contracts allow for at least one or two episodes of flexibility. Kiefer could come over, give a brief update on Jack, and then shift the focus back on Corey Hawkins’ main character of Eric Carter. The reality here is that the Bauer era of “24” seems to be over, but to us it does feel like a good idea to at least give us a little bit of the guy somewhere in the new series. Completely ignoring him would feel like an insult to the original’s fans, but we also understand trying to make your own thing, especially since you cannot even recreate the original if you wanted to right now.

There’s a long time since for everyone involved to talk things over and figure them out; while we know that there are a ton of people out there down on “24” without Jack, we’re extremely confident in Gordon and his team of producers to deliver something thrilled. While both this show and “Homeland” (another Gordon series) have had their down years, they’ve earned enough of our goodwill over time for us to think this will turn out just fine.