Fox Developing ’24’ Prequel Series

A 24 revival is in the works at Fox in the form of a young Jack Bauer prequel, Variety reports.

Original series co-creators Joel Surnow and Bob Cochran are developing the new iteration of the hit Kiefer Sutherland-led action-drama that ran for nine seasons. The project is in the very early phases of development and is not guaranteed to make it to air.

The unnamed prequel would mark Fox's third relaunch of the franchise: Sutherland headlined 24 as Bauer for eight seasons from 2002 — 2010, before the network briefly resurrected the series with a limited ninth season, 24: Live Another Day, in 2014.

A short-lived reboot-slash-sequel, 24: Legacy, focused on The Walking Dead and Straight Outta Compton star Corey Hawkins as a new character, ex-Army Ranger Eric Carter. That series was cancelled after a 12-episode run.

This new 24 would come as the latest Fox revival in recent years following fresh runs of X-Files and Prison Break.

Sutherland shot down a potential return to his best-known role in 2016, telling Deadline "there are absolutely no plans" to jump back in action as the gun-toting CTU agent. Sutherland went on to lead ABC political drama Designated Survivor, which was cancelled in May after two seasons.

After Fox announced Legacy in summer 2015, Sutherland told the BBC, "24 is definitely over now for me."

"It's one of the greatest gifts I've ever been given as an actor, but it's moving on without me, I want to do other things," he said at the time.

"My experience of 24 was unbelievable, but the main benefit was that it was nice to do something that people actually watched, and that they enjoyed. There are some movies I've made people might have enjoyed, but there were nine of them watching. And so 24 was so refreshing — the most significant thing was that it was accessible to a lot of people and to know they enjoyed it was so rewarding for me. I don't think there's a better medium than television out there at the moment. So think I want to do more of it and look for projects where I can repeat my experience."