News and Notes From 24 Comic-Con Panel

News

Here are the highlights from the 24 Comic-Con panel:

– Jack Bauer survived the 24 season finale with executive producer Howard Gordon having this to say about it, “He did make it through and you’ll see a little bit later how.”

– Season eight takes place in New York and will continue the season 7 storyline. “Season seven and eight, probably more than any other season that we’ve done before, are really connected together. The storylines from season seven really do play all the way through into season eight,” said Kiefer. The season will pick up 8 or 9 months later after Jack slips into a coma.

“Basically the threat centers around a peace conference at the U.N. that is being headed by the President of the United States and the President of Iran [played by Anil Kapoor of Slumdog Millionaire fame]. The rest of the day goes forward from that point,” spilled Kiefer.

– Executive producer Manny Coto said, “[The season] starts with Jack in a place we haven’t seen and that [he] is happy with his daughter and his granddaughter, and it’s really an interesting place because when you see those scenes in the beginning you realize, gosh, we haven’t seen this side of him for so long. There’s always this dread when you’re watching it that this is not going to last and it makes those moments so much more poignant.” Added Kiefer, “[It’s about] trying to figure out how to get Jack back to a place where living mattered. His life had been crushed so badly over the past seven seasons.”

– Jack’s happiness won’t last long, though. Executive producer David Fury said, “Renee will return within the first few [episodes] and she will be a different person than she was. The hint of the relationship that we put forth in season seven—we will be following through with this season. The season begins with Jack in a happy place ready to start a new life. And when Renee enters the scene, she is a damaged person. But she is someone he decides could be a part of [his] new life.”

– Romantic feelings between Jack and Renee? Kiefer said, “That was someone he obviously had very serious feelings for. The desire for season eight is to protect all of the things that would make living worthwhile.”

– Mary-Lynn Rajskub said about her character Chloe “My character starts off a little bit behind, if you can believe that for being such a genius, because I’ve been at home with my son. So I’m back at CTU and having to relearn some stuff.” I

– Freddie Prinze Jr., whose character, Cole Ortiz, is engaged to Dana Walsh, told everyone, “There’s a dark side to this relationship that you find out about fairly quickly. For a character like Cole—who is someone who is very disciplined and substituted a lot of feelings that he had post-9/11 for the qualities that define a Marine, like self-respect and dignity and honor—for someone like that to go through what this character is going to go through, it’s really going to turn his world upside down as far as their relationship goes.”

– About the 24 movie? “There’s been a lot of work done on behalf of Fox and us as well, kind of researching ideas for a film or a potential film franchise,” said Kiefer. “We agreed after season two that we would put any real planning for a film aside until we actually felt the series was in fact going to end. Every once in a while I say, ‘Wouldn’t it be a cool idea for a film?’ It really hasn’t gone any farther than that, but certainly we’ve been made aware that there’s some interest out there and we’d love to make it.”

Source: E! Online

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