“The headline of the show is: What does it mean to be American?" executive producer Howard Gordon offered at the annual TCA. "As a black soldier coming from war? As a high-powered woman who runs the CTU [as Mirando Otto's Rebecca Ingram does]? As a Hispanic candidate running for president [as Jimmy Smits' John Donovan is]? What does it mean to be an American?"
As to the creation of a follow-up to Sutherland's character, he added, "Jack Bauer casts a long shadow. It was essential that we reverse engineered [a character] with the broadest possible strokes that distinguished him from Jack Bauer. It wasn't about, 'Let's cast a black guy or a Hispianic guy.' It was very much, 'Who is this character?"
Answering that question for himself, Hawkins actually turned to Sutherland, noting to the TCA reporters, "We actually talked extensively. The gist of it is that he's super pumped. He was almost more pumped than I was about it, and he's really excited about this new idea.... [24] is really challenging. It's different than any kind of television show, because every single second is captured on film. Every single second of the day. His sort of insight was to just let it surprise you, and let it continue to evolve and not to have so much control over it in that collaboration with your writers and producers, because you get the opportunity for the character to surprise you."
24: Legacy debuts 5 February on Fox in the US, and 14 February on Fox in the UK.
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