’24’ Could Be Returning As Legal Drama With A Female Lead
As we reported back in August, US network FOX has been looking at possible ways of bringing back ‘24‘ after the recent reboot starring Corey Hawkins didn’t go down as well as they’d hoped. The plan is to take the ’24’ ticking-clock format and apply it to something other than a CTU based terrorism plot, and now we have a few more details on what that might look like.
’24’ exec producers Howard Gordon and Brian Grazer, along with ‘The Killing’ writer/producer Jeremy Doner, have been given a pilot order by FOX to produce a version of the real-time format drama which would centre on a female prosecutor. The ‘ticking clock’ in this case would be the impending execution of a death row inmate whom she originally put away, but now believes to be innocent. Doner and Gordon are set to write the script.
If the pilot does get picked up to series, don’t get too attached to the lead character. Inspired by the current trend for anthology series, the producers are saying they would like to change settings and stories each season, so it’s likely we would have a different cast and location every year. So this year it’s a courtroom. Next year it might be a doctor having a bad 24 hours in a hospital, or a street cop having a bad day on the beat. The common thread would be the real-time, ticking clock.
Assuming they are not going down the America Horror route, using the same actors in different roles, this could be quite an interesting way of building a wider ’24’ universe. Even if each season focuses on a new character and location, it wouldn’t stop them, possibly, porting some of the characters over from one season to the next. It also could allow them to go back to CTU at some point in the future… Maybe when Kiefer Sutherland has stopped being President on ‘Designated Survivor’.
It’s still very early days for this potential ‘24‘ revival, but we’ll let you know when we hear more!
