The “24” clock is ticking again — this time without Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer.
In “24: Legacy” — the next iteration of the real-time thriller — our hero is Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins), who’s racing to stop a terrorist attack on US soil. Unlike Jack, a career agent known to use any means necessary — including torture — to foil terrorist plots, Eric’s a young, ex-Army Ranger pulled back into the action.
“There are certain things that Jack Bauer, as a hardened CTU [Counter Terrorism Unit] veteran, was more inclined to do,” says Hawkins, 28. “Eric’s moral compass is very different from Jack’s. It’s about whether or not he feels comfortable with those situations that he has to go through. Whereas Jack was like, ‘Get out of my way, I’m trained,’ we’ll see Eric grow into that — or not.”
The premiere airs Sunday on Fox after the Super Bowl (then Mondays at 8 p.m.), and finds Eric and his wife Nicole (Anna Diop) trying to rebuild their life in federal witness protection after he led the mission that took out a terrorist leader in Yemen. When the sheik’s followers expose the identities of Eric’s squad, and start killing them off, Eric asks outgoing CTU national director Rebecca Ingram (Miranda Otto) for help after she steps down to join her husband, Sen. John Donovan (Jimmy Smits), on the presidential campaign trail.
Hawkins, a Washington, DC, native and Julliard graduate, received raves for his portrayal of Dr. Dre in the 2015 NWA biopic “Straight Outta Compton.” He was the producers’ first choice to take over the franchise, winning the role from a grainy, 4 a.m. Skype call from Australia where he was shooting “Kong: Skull Island.”
Since the original “24” debuted more than 15 years ago, producers didn’t want “Legacy” to lean too heavily on its predecessor. But there’s at least one returnee from the original series: Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), last seen in prison on the DVD extras of “24: Live Another Day.” Executive producer Howard Gordon will only say that Tony “has a deep relationship” with a main “Legacy” character and will be introduced later this season. “[Tony] is a guy who has been so deeply scarred and lost so much because of his service, he’s like a walking wound that’s been scarred over and over again,” says Gordon, who won’t rule out the possibility that Jack Bauer may enter this story (no Sutherland appearances are planned thus far).
“You only want to bring Jack up when he’s substantially part of it. Just invoking him is a hollow exercise,” Gordon says. “If the story calls for someone in the ‘24’ universe to make a cameo, I think it’s fun, but we’re not going to trot out someone from the old cast every other week. The show has to live on its own.”
Sutherland (currently starring in ABC’s “Designated Survivor”) is, however, involved in the project as an executive producer. “He’s the only person I can talk to that understands exactly what I’m going through right now,” Hawkins says. “ To have his blessing was the one thing I was nervous about.”
“24: Legacy” Series premiere Sunday night on Fox
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