Counting Down with "24" at Comic-Con

I've been very upfront about my feelings about 24's Day Six. So I was curious to see how the producers of 24 would address the, er, creative inconsistencies of the series' sixth season.

It was with a little trepidation that I arrived at the 24 panel at Comic-Con. No cast on hand (sorry, Chloe fans!) but the series' producers turned out in droves for this panel, including John Cassar, Evan Katz, David Fury, and Manny Coto.

What tidbits did the producers offer for Day Seven?

-No CTU. However when Season Seven starts, CTU has been disbanded by the government. Jack will be hauled before Senate committee to face crimes and dragged/pushed into something HUGE.

-The writers have been locked in a room for the last three months figuring out a course for Season Seven and confirmed the rumors that the writers went down a particular creative road (Africa), stopped, and then started over from scratch. They said that Season Seven is going places series hasn't gone before.

-Season Seven will take place in Washington, DC and not Los Angeles.

-Who else will get killed? "No characters left to eliminate, " joked David Fury.

-As previously reported, Broadway actress Cherry Jones has been cast as the series' first female president. Also returning: Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe (as if that weren't a given). Producers joked that they were "very close to signing Kiefer."

What else happened at the panel? The producers addressed the numerous complaints about Season Six, for one. Fury suggested "taking complainers about Season Six into the back room." Cassar felt that one of the finest moments in the series to date was Jack torturing his brother, Graem. But fear not: They've been very conscious of the criticism about Season Six.

The series' signature real time format will not be changing, but there will be some radical changes for next season, a la no CTU.

Think Tony Almeida's death was unsatisfying? "Keep watching." Wait, what? David Fury went on and admitted that " to say anything definitive either way would ruin the process." (Hmmm, but see below.)

What happened to the Logans? Fury says that it was deliberately left a little vague. The audience can assume that Martha went to prison for stabbing her villainous husband. Cassar joked that there's a spin-off possibility in seeing Martha Logan in prison: "Caged Martha."

As for the gap between Season Six and Seven, the producers haven't yet decided what the lag will be. Most likely, it's between 18 months and two years.

A prequel season has been discussed several times over by the producers, which would focus on Nina and Jack's affair, etc. Cassar says the possibility was raised as far back as Season Two. However, the "show lives and dies with who lives and dies." By setting a season in the past, you've removed all suspense from the series as the outcome is immediately clear.

Will we see Chase again? Producers aren't sure and right now there's no plans. "Chase won't be back," joked Fury, "but his hand will."

Producers admitted that they weren't too thrilled with how Season Six underutilized Kiefer and felt that the last third of the season was especially Jack-lite. And there was a different cliffhanger ending planned for the sixth season... one that involved the sudden reappearance of a certain Tony Almeida!

Will Jack be more physical next season? "It's hard to imagine him more physical, but he's on his own" next season. Hmmm.

Is Audrey coming back? "She's on a show," referring to Kim Raver's casting on NBC's new drama Lipstick Jungle. The audience then begged for Kim Bauer to never, ever return to the series. (I second that notion wholeheartedly.)

Is Josh Jack's son or not? "He's the cougar's son," joked Fury. Cassar said there was the possibility of Josh being Jack's son but they ultimately decided to leave it up to the audience to decide. In fact, one potential plot strand had Josh being Philip Bauer (James Cromwell)'s son! That twist was floating around the writers' room for about three weeks but was ultimately scrapped because, in Cassar's words, "it made us feel dirty."

How do the show's writers decide who lives or dies? Evan Katz says that they try to save deaths for when they are dramatically impactful. The nerve gas incident at CTU wouldn't have been as dramatic had someone (i.e. Edgar) not died. Cassar said that they started telling actors in advance if their characters were going to get killed off, but some actors were able to talk their way out of death for a while. Peter Weller, for example was meant to die no less than five times.

Cassar confirmed that there will be no 24 prequel mini-sode this year. But what about the long gestating 24 feature film? Cassar admitted that it was "very ambitious" to think that they could do the series and the feature at the same time and, as for when a 24 feature will finally get made, he said that when 24 finished on television, the movie will come out. Will the format of the film mirror the real-time structure of the series? Cassar joked that it will be "a 24-hour movie," but said that the first hour will not be in real time and the second hour will unfold in real-time.