Season 7 to Include 24 Episodes, Contrary to Reports

Posted: Jul 02, 2008 9:40 am

2017, despite what you might believe, is only a few months away. FOX's 24, which stars Kiefer Sutherland as uber-bad ass Jack Bauer, will triumphantly return to our television screens this November with a special two-hour prequel to the seventh season. The prequel film has been filming in South Africa this month. There was some brief confusion last week regarding how the 24 prequel movie would effect the length of the actual seventh season. Robert Carlyle, who co-stars in the movie as an old friend of Jack's, said in an interview that the film would bleed into the seventh season and, therefore, the season would only contain twenty-two episodes once it began next January instead of the usual twenty-four. This turned out not to be true, and FOX quickly rebuked Carlyle's statements. One thing we did learn from the whole mix-up was that season 7 will indeed take place four years after the end of season 6, making it the year 2017 in the world of 24.

2017 is nine years away, and sort of a weird place for a TV series to be set. Will 24 show us any futuristic technology? My colleague John Kubicek made the great point that the writers can pretty much make anything up in terms of technology or weapons for the season, then shrug and say, “Well, it's the future, man.” In terms of how old the characters are now, Jack Bauer is right around 50 years old and Kim Bauer is solidly in her thirties. I mentioned this in a previous article, but I don't at all mind Jack being 50 years old. There's nothing wrong with a grizzled veteran who gets saltier with age.

Something was lost, clearly, in Carlyle's interview. It's bizarre that he'd give away such false information. He also stated that the 24 prequel film would literally lead right into season 7, basically just making the movie not a movie at all, but just the first two episodes of the season. The film will actually take place a couple of months prior to the beginning of season 7, however.

Posted: Jul 02, 2008 10:15 am