Looks like Jack Bauer might not be invincible after all.
Not only did 24 executive producer Howard Gordon tell reporters he might very well "blow up the whole world" and Jack Bauer with it, but he's also talking about doing a big-screen 24 movie that will happen when the Fox series ends--and that end might come sooner than you'd think.
"My hope is to go after the eighth season," Gordon tells us, "and Keifer and I have talked about it, and I think that’s sort of what we’re aiming for."
Wait a minute. Does 24 really only have one season left? And could Jack Bauer really die? Here's what Kiefer Sutherland and company tell me…
"I don't know. I take it one day at a time," Gordon says when asked if he really plans to call it quits on 24 after season eight. (The series is currently in its seventh season.)
"I think we came to the conclusion," Gordon explains, "and I think we’re in agreement with Fox, that the only way we’re going to do it is after the show’s over. I don’t think a big screen 24 works while Jack is on TV."
Fair enough. But they're not really going to blow up the whole world and Jack Bauer with it, right?
"We realize now that [Jack's] more a human being than we really thought," says executive producer Jon Cassar. "He's not the Superman that everyone thinks he is."
According to Kiefer, Jack's end is not pre-ordained, but he does have to go sometime: "I see [Jack] as a really human figure, and I think there is something innately tragic about people. I think there is no winning. We're all going to die. There's something kind of sad in that, and yet there's something really beautiful and hopeful."
In the meantime, Kiefer will just keep kicking ass on Fox's Monday night during the current seventh season, which premiered on Sunday.
He'll also keep shouting Jack Bauer's favorite word. "'Damnit' has just become every expletive that you can’t use on television rolled into one," Kiefer says with a laugh.
