Fox has found its new Jack.
Corey Hawkins of Straight Outta Compton and The Walking Dead fame will star in Fox’s reboot of the hit thriller 24, the network announced.
For fans who haven’t kept up with 24 news since its miniseries event in 2014, Fox revealed it was rebooting the series with all new characters but will retain the same pulse-pounding, hour-to-hour format it made famous. But Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland since the show’s inception, will be on the sidelines.
The new series will be called 24: Legacy.
The man tasked with disrupting the next fictitious terror plot on US soil is Hawkins, who will play a military hero named Eric Carter.
Hawkins played iconic rapper Dr. Dre in the acclaimed hip-hop biopic Straight Outta Compton, which many observers feel was snubbed out of an Oscar nomination. He’s also appeared in AMC’s cult favorite The Walking Dead as the character Heath.
24 fans are accustomed to new characters because of the show’s high death count since the series began in 2001. But it’s unclear how fans will respond to someone other than Bauer saving the day. Sutherland reprised the role of Jack Bauer in 2014 when Fox produced 24: Live Another Day, a 12-episode event molded after previous seasons. Legacy will also run as a 12-episode series.
The cast may be different but several people instrumental in the series’ success in previous seasons have signed on to the project. Serving as executive producers will be Howard Gordon, Brian Grazer, Manny Coto and Evan Katz.
Much like previous seasons, the reboot will cover one full day but will likely jump around to complete the 24-hour cycle.
While the show inspired a huge following, it also became part of the political discourse as it was criticized for its unapologetic use of torture on terror subjects. Torture was such a staple on the show that after a while it lost its shock value.
The move by Fox to revive the show—again—is just the latest in a growing library of popular shows that have gone off air only to return. Also coming back to Fox is Prison Break, which had a four-season run. And, after a 13-year television hiatus, The X-Files returned Sunday for a six-episode event.
