Beginning shortly after the Super Bowl wraps up Feb. 5 on Fox, fans of Jack Bauer will have a new gun-toting, clock-racing, terrorist-hunting hero to follow through a day's worth of high drama.

And this time, he's an Army Ranger.

Sgt. Eric Carter's squad is already home before "24: Legacy" swings into action, but the battle has followed them despite efforts to hide their identities after they eliminated a high-profile target. As his squad members are hunted down, Carter's transition back to civilian life abruptly ends as the familiar digital clock starts ticking.

Corey Hawkins plays Carter, and while he's not in uniform in the role, he said he's careful to keep his actions as true-to-life as possible, even when they involve the improbable -- using construction equipment to take out the bad guys, for instance.

"It's important for me to get it right; it has to be authentic," said Hawkins, who starred as Dr. Dre in 2015's "Straight Outta Compton" and as Heath in AMC's "The Walking Dead." "If I'm holding a gun, if I'm clearing a room, it can't just be TV magic because there are people who are going to be watching this who do this every day. It has to honor them. And it only takes a little bit of effort to do."

Hawkins said he's pumped to play a Ranger, although his first brush with elite military units came as part of preparation for "Kong: Skull Island," a star-filled blockbuster (Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Tom Hiddleston, a large ape) set for a March release. The production brought in former Navy SEALs to teach military tactics.

Hawkins told Military Times he was expecting more bulk: "I said, 'Y'all look skinnier than me!' They were like, 'Yeah, but we'll kick your ass.'"

SEAL SWITCH

It was an article on Navy SEALs written soon after the death of Osama bin Laden that inspired "24: Legacy" co-creator Manny Coto in the first place.

"It was talking about these guys having to go into some form of witness protection, or hide their identities," Coto told Military Times. "I remember at one point one of them asked the FBI, 'What do I do? How do I make a living?' And they were told, well, we'll get you a job as a truck driver.

"That hit me as a really interesting 'in' to a story -- what if you had a group of six guys who had taken out a large terrorist and were now trying to adjust to these [new] lives. ... And then what if one by one, these guys started getting killed off?"

Coto and fellow co-creator Evan Katz envisioned the story outside the "24" universe, but the addition of the real-time element played well with the original pieces, and eventually Carter, a fairly recently separated soldier, was set to take over for Bauer, who was a retired Army captain and Delta Force member in the original series.

COMING HOME

The brand-new life of Sgt. Carter and wife Nicole (Anna Diop) already showed cracks before the shooting started in the premiere. Fellow Ranger Marcus Grimes (Charlie Hofheimer) returns from war paranoid and suffering from plot-driving demons. It's all part of a civilian-military reintegration subtext that coincides with shootouts, fistfights and quick cuts.

"This was about these people who come back and are heroes," Katz said. "They come back and have to adjust to not doing that. And that fascinates us."

So, why a Ranger and not a SEAL? For one, the son of Robert Cochran, an executive producer on the new series and co-creator of the first "24," serves in that capacity. Also, the creators wanted to set their series apart from the rash of Navy-flavored fare hitting the screens after the bin Laden raid.

"There was a lot of Seal Team 6 going around," Katz said. "We wanted to differentiate a little bit."

Regardless of service specifics, Hawkins said he's honored to bring all aspects of military life to the small screen.

"For me, there’s something immensely special about the dialogue we have to have about the people who risk their lives every single day and go overseas to protect our country," he said. "Every race, creed, color gender. Our military is extremely capable, man. And to the average eye, they’re ordinary people doing extraordinary things so that we can sit here in the U.S. and make a television show about it, you know? I don’t take it lightly."

The show's second episode will air Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. Eastern, in what will be its regular Monday time slot.

About Kevin Lilley

Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.

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