Kiefer Sutherland thinks Jack Bauer's story is still "unresolved"
Sutherland expressed his openness to returning to the part of 24's endlessly running action hero
Few TV characters’ day-to-day (to day, to day, to day) existences have been chronicled more rigorously than 24's Jack Bauer. Pursued relentlessly by his ultimate enemy—a small digital clock that seems to know where he is at every moment of his waking life—Kiefer Sutherland’s Bauer has lived through 9 seasons of semi-real-time TV at this point, plus a TV movie. Any reasonable person would probably say that Jack’s story (encompassing heroism, torture, a little light terrorism, and so much running) has probably had all the room it needs to fully resolve itself.
Nevertheless: Sutherland has now declared Jack’s story uncompleted, and has expressed his openness to returning to the franchise for yet more “Yelling ‘Dammit, we’re almost out of time!’” action.
This is per an interview Sutherland recently gave to GQ, telling the magazine that “I do believe the story is unresolved.” (To be fair, the most recent Sutherland-led season of 24, 2014's Live Another Day, did end with him in the hands of vengeful Russian agents—although we’d argue that “being held by a hostile foreign government” is a pretty natural resting point for a guy like Jack.)
“I miss it. It was an incredible experience,” Sutherland said in regards to the show. (He was absent from the franchise’s most recent offering, 2017's 24: Legacy, although he did give the sequel series his personal endorsement.) As to whether he’ll return to the part of Bauer, Sutherland was very “let go and let god”: “I have learned that you’re just better off not to be definitive about your answer of whether you will do something or not do something. I love playing that character… If something were to be written that made sense to me and that I thought was going to contribute to the franchise then I would be behind it, even if my participation in that were to be limited.”
Fox has stated in the past that it has designs on continuing 24 at some point or another, although the franchise has lain fallow for the last 5 years. The series is a joint production between Brian Glazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment and the now-Disney-owned 20th Century Television.