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Meet the new 24 cast

Minor Spoilers: Kiefer Sutherland, Mary-Lynn Rajskub, Katee Sackhoff, Anil Kapoor & Freddie Prinze Jr gathered at San Diego's Comic Con.

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24It’s getting hard to keep up with all the tidbits coming out of Comic Con, the yuuuge convention in San Diego at which many TV panels bring themselves before fans. It’s one of the best TV-fests in the world, along with Edinburgh, Banff and maybe New York (sob, why don’t we have something like this for Aussie shows?).

One of the assembled forums brought together the next cast of 24 with (a non-aggressive) Kiefer Sutherland, Mary-Lynn Rajskub, Battlestar‘s Katee Sackhoff, Slumdog Millionaire‘s Anil Kapoor and Freddie Prinze Jr.

While Kapoor was coy about his role, Prinze plays Cole Ortiz, an ex-marine field operative with CTU. Sackhoff plays a data analyst, also at CTU. She’s Cole’s wife and Chloe’s new boss.

Season 8 centres around a peace conference in the UN headed by the presidents of the US and Iran. Sutherland told Comic Con this season is far more grounded in the political realities of the world we live in.

“Don’t be alarmed though,” he says. “We do still blow shit up.”

According to Empire, the production values “look like they’ve been given a shot in the arm.” In terms of the show’s on- screen technology the show has always liked to keep just ahead of the real world, but producers concede fact has now caught up with them.

Sutherland introduced a clip to the audience, described as thus….

Minor Spoilers:
It begins with Bauer in a room when an old associate, shot and wounded, knocks on the door to tell Bauer about an assassination plot at the UN. After a Bauer-esque interrogation (lots of shouting and the implied threat of torture), all the details are divulged and we learn that, once again, Jack is ‘out’ and no longer on the government payroll. Cut to the newly resurrected CTU, situated in a brand new and incredibly swish office, as Cole Ortiz arrives. He greets Sackhoff’s character, who goes on to put Chloe in her place while doing some computer jiggery pokery – this is a girl who knows her geekery. Garnering cheers from fans, Chloe’s first word is “dammit!” Jack calls and asks Chloe to put him through to the director as a major incident is about to unfold.

Source: Empire

10 Responses

  1. Jack wont be killed off in this season. The writers have planned to make a movie after Season 8 (if there is no Season 9) and explain that that will be a “proper send-off” for Jack. Jack dying, not likely.

  2. ”(sob, why don’t we have something like this for Aussie shows?)”

    I followed Comic-Con on twitter as a number of key TV critics were reporting it live.

    Alan Sepinwall did a great job with his live reports – they were very informative especially when it came to covering ’24’ and of course the important screening of “Epitaph One,” the 13th episode of “Dollhouse” season one. Ii felt like I was actually at the event.

  5. Although there are conventions in Australia, the organisers have to pay appearance fees to the actors and other guests for their appearances – these fees are often higher for overseas guests. Plus flights and accommodation, plus venue costs.

    The fee represents (to a certain extent) the money they might otherwise get if they were filming a movie during their between-season break.

    In the past, local productions have not been knocking on the doors of local conventions – seeing them as geek-fests, rather than opportunities to get their products seen in a wider market. Hopefully, this attitude will change.

    For example, the rumour was that one Channel 9 programmer – many years ago – indicated that sci-fi programs were a lower priority than sport. (And anyway, the geeks could program the VCRs). So Star Trek got buried way after 11pm.

    Mind you, the convention organisers would love to be able to promote local shows – not just sci-fi, but all the high quality Aussie shows that have been seen recently.

  7. >>”(sob, why don’t we have something like this for Aussie shows?)”

    There are a lot of science fiction conventions each year in Australia. Maybe local TV and movies ought to hook up with them and supply some celebrity clout and resources to boost the quality.

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