Upfronts 2013: Jack Bauer Gets More Clock as Fox Resurrects '24'

12-episode series on track for May 2014 premiere

By Dade Hayes -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/13/2013 9:36:27 AM

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Fox has greenlit a compressed revival of one of its biggest legacy hits, 24, confirming Monday its 12-episode arc will unfold in May 2014, through next summer.

Kiefer Sutherland is set to return as Jack Bauer. No plot details were divulged, but Howard Gordon will be back as executive producer. The series will unfold chronologically, as with the initial run from 2001 to 2010, but skipping certain hours depending on events and plot developments.

Fox chairman Kevin Reilly said Gordon and his team had been developing a feature film version of 24, but then decided to stretch it out.

"The spine of the 24 episodes was always about 12 hours, with twists and connective tissue in between," Reilly said. The compressed version will be the "best of the 12," he added.

24, which "came together quickly," Reilly said, will premiere before Wayward Pines, the M. Night Shyamalan event series that Fox touted in its schedule announcement.

Fox isn't ruling out the possibility of a regular recurrence of 24 beyond the upcoming revival, and Reilly noted the net's event series is designed to yield some renewable franchises.