Jack Bauer's spin-off 24: Legacy is mere weeks away, but now we finally know what killed off the feature length movie that would've seen our favourite CTU agent hit the big screen.
Brian Grazer spoke about his love of the Kiefer Sutherland action series during the TCA press tour and after it finished, he was very keen to create another terrible day for Jack Bauer to endure.
Despite working on it for two years, Grazer was never able to get a film to work, even though his creative partner Ron Howard and the main man Sutherland were both signed up.
There were three main reasons for this, Grazer explained (via Deadline): "It just worked better for television.
"We couldn't really find the right world to put it in, the right location. To base it in America seemed not very authentic, whereas to do a TV show in America was the perfect bridge.
"We put it in European countries, but it wasn't working there with the economics, we couldn't find enough money to make it. So we couldn't find the right location, we couldn't find the right story, and it was always too expensive."
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So there you have it, money, location and the fact it was just way better on the tellybox. Still, Grazer has always been a huge fan of the show and wanted to do anything to keep it going.
"I was such a fan of (the original series) because it was such an amazing serendipitous intersection between narrative form, what was going on in the culture and what was going to happen in the culture," he explained.
"I became an insane fan who would just champion this into another life which would be a ninth season (Live Another Day)."
We're finally getting the next chapter in the shape of 24: Legacy, which will star Straight Outta Compton's Corey Hawkins as a modern-day Jack Bauer, although it wasn't originally intended to be a sequel.
Hawkins will be battling the elusive terrorist exploits of groups like ISIS as the show hopes to be more representative and give Americans a hero they can admire – just as Jack Bauer did back in 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on New York's Twin Towers and the Pentagon in Washington DC.
Grazer added: "I think middle America will watch the show and they will feel a sense of escape and relief by watching it."
The latest trailer for 24: Legacy saw the return of the show's infamous villain Tony Almeida, and Digital Spy has singled out all those plot holes the show will need to fill from the Bau-era.
24: Legacy premieres on Fox following the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 5. It will air on Tuesday, February 14 at 9pm on FOX in the UK.
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Laurence Mozafari (he/him) is a multi-award winning journalist, editor, and presenter. A former Editor-in-Chief of Digital Spy, Laurence previously held roles as the site's Editor, Deputy Editor, and Associate Editor focusing on news, social, and video. Laurence hosted the BBC Sounds podcast Obsessed with Peaky Blinders in 2019. He also hosts his own podcast production, Time of My Life, where he interviews fascinating elders about their life lessons, including Only Fools and Horses' Sir David Jason, Star Trek’s George Takei and Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh.
Laurence was named Editorial Director – Youth Audience at Reach in early 2025. Prior to joining Digital Spy, he was previously at Bauer Media working as Digital Editor of Heat magazine's website Heatworld.com, and has also worked at and written for Sky, NME, Q magazine, Grazia, Closer, FHM and dedicated careers website GoThinkBig. He secured a first-class BA journalism degree at Staffordshire University, along with several NCTJ qualifications, and now has 14 years' experience in digital publishing covering TV, movies, music, gaming, tech, showbiz, and travel.
Laurence has been a broadcasting contributor on television and radio, including KISS, Heat Radio, BBC Radio London, Radio 5 Live, and BBC Breakfast.
He is also a visiting lecturer at various universities teaching journalism, including City, University of London, Nottingham Trent, Staffordshire University and London Metropolitan. Laurence has won numerous awards in his journalism career, including the BSME Talent Award’s Best Deputy Editor, the PPA's 30 Under 30, and the New Editor and Editor of the Year at the AOP and BSMEs. He led Digital Spy to win PPA's Digital Content Team of the Year twice, along with the British Media Awards’ Brand of the Year in 2021.
Laurence joined the committee for the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2022 and was named vice-chair in 2025. He has since hosted panels with CEOs of Immediate Media and the Media Trust at the PPA Festival, as well as presenting his own radio show on Green Man Radio at Green Man Festival in 2022. Laurence is also a Brits voting academy member.
Laurence has been lucky enough to interview numerous celebrities, actors, and musicians throughout his career. Arnold Schwarzenegger loved his hair, Jimmy Carr loved his coat and Antonio Banderas gave a shout-out to his mum. Laurence has covered set visits for The Witcher on Netflix and Marvel’s Inhumans, he got Daisy Ridley to do a Chewbacca impression and loves Marvel, PlayStation, Glastonbury and craft beer. Linkedin
