The spin-off 24: Legacy has a new hero, but one familiar face will be returning: Tony Almeida.
A Friday afternoon panel on the show at New York Comic Con started off with a bang, as fans of the series watched an action-packed, 20-minute preview and heard from executive producers and cast members about what else to expect.
The producers said little about Almeida’s role in the show, aside from saying his participation has long been planned. “You’re lucky you got that,” said executive producer Manny Coto. The DVD version of 24: Live Another Day contained a short featuring the character, played by Carlos Bernard, escaping from prison. “So this has been planned for a very long, long time or we’re very lucky we did that short,” Coto said. When they announced his name, the crowd was loudly excited.
Executive producer Evan Katz later noted that the show existed within the 24 universe, and the storyline it ended on in 24: Live Another Day when the original show’s main character, Jack Bauer, “was carted off to Moscow”.
When the pilot preview began, fans began cheering as soon as the show’s celebrated clock began ticking. As actor Jimmy Smits teased, they also screamed a lot when the bullets started flying. “I was watching you guys,” Smits joked. “Shoot ’em again! Shoot ’em again!”
The 12-episode series, which premieres on 5 February, follows Eric Carter, played by Corey Hawkins of Straight Outta Compton, and his wife Nicole, played by Anna Diop, as they attempt to re-establish their lives. Carter, a former army ranger, has just completed a mission to take out a terrorist leader called Sheik Ibrahim Bin-Khalid. Unfortunately, Bin-Khalid’s men have found out the rangers’ identities and are picking them off one by one, in search of a stolen strongbox.
The clip opens with Bin-Khalid’s men killing another ranger, then coming for Carter and his wife. The couple escape thanks to Nicole, but Carter then leaves her with his estranged brother in order to go find the only other living member of his unit, Ben Grimes, played by Charlie Hofheimer.
Simultaneously, CTU’s former head, Rebecca, played by Miranda Otto, is getting a medal for her work in taking down Bin-Khalid. Her husband, a senator played by Smits, is running for president. At the same time, a high school student worries that his new classmates from Chechnya have been talking with terrorists and are planning something bad …
Fans seemed to enjoy the clip. “It’s really refreshing to see a woman actually take a role in defending herself in a TV show,” one man said of Nicole’s role, when the floor opened for questions from the crowd. He was also pleased to see Smits as president, something he had been waiting for since The West Wing.
Another simply asked: “Why are you making us wait till February?” The show will debut after the Super Bowl, a detail Hawkins believes shows Fox has faith in it.
Much of the panel was devoted to discussion of contemporary influences on the show, as well as its similarities and differences from the original. Coto noted that one of the reasons the team wanted to do the show was “what’s going on in the world today with politics and Isis and whatnot – the subject, unfortunately, never goes away”.
Hawkins emphasized that the show was important because it’s a “new 24 for a new generation” and “a new hero that looks like America today”.
In terms of what to expect with his character, Hawkins alluded to some dark moments down the line, as well as some struggles as he figures out if working with CTU “lives with him or it doesn’t”. Jack Bauer was a CTU-trained spy; Carter is a soldier.
Hawkins said people kept asking him how his character was different from Bauer. One difference is that Carter seems to start off in a good place, though he has his flaws.
Hawkins put it quite simply: “He’s Eric Carter, you know what I mean?”
