After four years away, Jack Bauer is coming back! Yes, on May 5th, 24: Live Another Day debuts on FOX, beginning a new 12-part series that finds Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) still on the run as a fugitive, pursued by CIA agent Kate Morgan (Yvonne Strahovski). Circumstances will soon reunite Jack with Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub), but under less than happy circumstances - and not as the allies they once were.

Sutherland has actually begun filming the series in London this week, but just a few days ago, back in Pasadena, California -- shortly after Sutherland, Rajskub, executive producer Howard Gordon and other members of the 24 crew spoke to a group of journalists about Live Another Da y -- I sat down with Sutherland for a conversation about returning to the role of Jack Bauer. The actor discussed why he was excited to come back, where Jack's at psychologically when we find him and the potential future of the franchise.

Kiefer Sutherland returns as Jack Bauer in 24: Live Another Day.

It's fine, it's fine. It's been awhile since I've had to do this, but it's good. It's a lot easier to do this with something that you're excited about than not.You know, I don't know. You could ask Leonard Cohen the same thing. He's written 73 verses to "Hallelujah," and he's going to write them until the day he dies, because as a musician and as a poet he found a meter and a melody that is intrinsically him, and he writes to it all the time. I love this character. We ended because Howard [Gordon] said, "I know how to finish this eighth year, and I don't know how to start a ninth." I said, "Then we're done." He was like, "Well, do you want someone else to come in?" "No. We did this. We're done." It wasn't because we didn't want to do it. We were just tired. So it was a five-minute conversation when he called me up and said, "I think that I've got an arc of 12 episodes that could be amazing," and I said, "You mean, like, really amazing, like the best season of 24?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "F**k, let's do it."It was clearly nagging at him for awhile. He had thought it out, and it was bugging him. So here we are. But the ending and the beginning, it never had anything to do with a want or not; it was, how can we stay believing that we can do the best kind of show ever? And maybe the break was it. You know, we haven't shot anything yet, and I'm f**king scared! [Laughs] But I wouldn't be here if I didn't think we had a shot at making the best season of 24, and that's what we're going to set out to do, and hopefully we'll do it.Absolutely. I was describing this to a friend of mine. He said, "So what's it going to be like?" I said, "Well, he's been isolated for four years, estranged from his country, estranged from his family -- he's pretty pissed off." He said, "Well, you can't do that. I mean, he's always pissed off." I said, "No, no. There's another notch we can do," and it's not how he deals with someone who's doing something wrong. It's how he deals with someone who might be able to help him - he doesn't even want to know. "I don't trust nobody. I am my own machine." Well, when that dynamic hits Chloe, that's pretty serious, so that's going to be a major shift. Will Chloe be able to pull him back, or is he going to set her up and use her? Has he gone over that point? Is it too far? We're going to play with that.Yeah. Well, some things have also happened to her in the four years, and that influences exactly where she's at and why this is going the way it is. What is nice is this doesn't need to be explained in complete exposition. It's explained because someone needs to know something about what happened in the four years. So all of that stuff works for me. It's an interesting dynamic to come to, because every season has always been trying to push him a little farther. It'd be nice to start with him up here and have to try and pull him back down. He's not even trying to wiggle room around the law. He doesn't give a s**t anymore. The law is nothing to him. He's been a fugitive and wanted, hunted by the CIA for years.

Continue to Page 2 as Sutherland discusses Yvonne Strahovski's character, moving to a 12-episode story and where 24 could go next.