Official 24: Day 8 - Discussion Thread. (NEW PROMOS Pg.38!)

According to Twitter pics, the next season starts at 4PM, with the four hour premiere finishing at 8PM - the time of day when President Taylor and a visiting Middle Eastern leader played by Anil Kapoor are supposed to be talking in a press conference.

Lots of BSG actors in there (Katee Sackoff) and pics have emerged of Jack Bauer dragging Benito Martinez (Aceveda from The Shield) down a NY street. Kim Bauer is also said to feature in early episodes.

There was a cure at the end of Day 7, I expect the major change will be a very upbeat and happy Jack Bauer; one that has come to terms with what he has done.

The villain from The Green Mile (small weedy man) has been cast as a European terrorist. I don't think it will just be Middle Eastern villains this time around, maybe a mixture of both. The Middle Eastern seasons before were only really bad because it was just one boring Middle Eastern maniac trying to blow up the US. Season 6, Fayed. Season 4, Marwan. Season 2, the other ME season was strawberry floating awesome:

A because Sayed Ali was a great villain, and innocent.
B because he was mixed in amongst domestic terrorists.

Is assassination again, full circle back to Day 1 - love it. Anil Kapoor, who was great in Slumdog and who should be a fantastic addition, is under threat as he signs a new peace treaty with the US. We know that the UN is involved a lot, and that Jack may possibly be working there (although I'm guessing from on set snaps that it starts with him spending time with Kim and Teri, another allusion to season 1) and the late afternoon start should be really interesting. The night hours will start really early, hopefully meaning a lot of espionage kinda stuff, building up to daylight hours which tend to be a little more action packed.

DID JACK CONVERT TO ISLAM AT THE END?

I hope he did. That would be GOLD.

Kim to die in the opening four hours.

We already know that season eight takes place in New York, but it's actually a continuation of the season seven storyline. "Season seven and eight, probably more than any other season that we've done before, are really connected together. The storylines from season seven really do play all the way through into season eight," said Kiefer. We're told it takes place about eight or nine months following Jack slipping into a coma.

"Basically the threat centers around a peace conference at the U.N. that is being headed by the President of the United States and the President of Iran [played by Anil Kapoor of Slumdog Millionaire fame]. The rest of the day goes forward from that point," spilled Kiefer. In past seasons, 24 was very focused on wars and terror, however, Gordon said they're going to capture the audience this season "with peace, with the possibility of peace," to which Kiefer joked, "Don't be alarmed, we do still blow s--t up."

On top of the new threat Jack needs to deal with, he's also coming down from his near death experience. Executive producer Manny Coto said, "[The season] starts with Jack in a place we haven't seen and that [he] is happy with his daughter and his granddaughter, and it's really an interesting place because when you see those scenes in the beginning you realize, gosh we haven't seen this side of him for so long. There's always this dread when you're watching it that this is not going to last and it makes those moments so much more poinient." Added Kiefer, "[It's about] trying to figure out how to get Jack back to a place where living mattered. His life had been crushed so badly over the past seven seasons."

Obviously, Jack's happiness doesn't last very long, or else there wouldn't be an exciting 24 hours ahead of us. Besides the imminent threat on the U.N., Renee (Annie Wersching) is actually bringing some trouble back with her. Executive producer David Fury said, "Renee will return within the first few [episodes] and she will be a different person than she was. The hint of the relationship that we put forth in season seven—we will be following through with this season. The season begins with Jack in a happy place ready to start a new life. And when Renee enters the scene, she is a damaged person. But she is someone he decides could be a part of [his] new life."

As for a possible romantic spark between Jack and Renee, Kiefer said, "That was someone he obviously had very serious feelings for. The desire for season eight is to protect all of the things that would make living worth while." That sounds like a pretty close relationship is on the horizon for Jack and Renee.
Katee Sackhoff Albert Ortega/WireImage.com

In a sneak peek shown at Comic-Con, fans got a preview of the New York CTU division. It's all sleek, shiny and high-tech in a semi-sexy way (underground tunnel included!). Although high-tech is what's going to give Chloe a hard time in the upcoming season. Mary-Lynn Rajskub said, "My character starts off a little bit behind, if you can believe that for being such a genius, because I've been at home with my son. So, I'm back at CTU and having to relearn some stuff." It probably doesn't help that new cast member Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) is her boss. Quite opposite to her head-to-head rivarly with Janeane Garofalo's Janis Gold, Sackhoff's Dana Walsh puts on the over friendly "you'll get better, you just need practice" tone to the annoyance of Chloe.

Dana Walsh, on the other hand, is not quite as friendly as she appears. Mr. Buffy Summers, ahem, Freddie Prinze Jr., whose character, Cole Ortiz, is engaged to Walsh told us, "There's a dark side to this relationship that you find out about fairly quickly. For a character like Cole—who is someone who is very disciplined and substituted a lot of feelings that he had post 9/11 for the qualities that define a Marine, like self-respect and dignity and honor—for someone like that to go through what this character is going to go through, it's really going to turn his world upside down as far as their relationship goes." Adding fuel to the fire of her character's possible evil side was Katee saying she told the writers she loved the scripts "but at some point I'm going to need a gun."

source: http://au.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_wi ... y_man.html

4pm start time, Assassantion threat, Jack most likely having to find a way to get Aceveda to CTU through the streets of NY, opening with a happy Jack with Kim and Teri, and the Russian-mob elements that have come into play.