24 has certainly roped themselves some interesting villains in past seasons. Perhaps one of the most notable was Dennis Hopper, back in Day One, who played Serbian nationalist Victor Drazen. Remember him? Back when 24 still seemed like a promising show, before all the ridiculous crap with Kim’s babysitting job and the cougar and the nuclear bomb? Yes, my opinion of 24 has soured some. How did you notice?

The biggest problem with 24 is that its most important feature - the “real-time” presentation - makes it drag. Necessarily, every episode ends on a cliffhanger just to keep you watching. And, less necessarily, every seaons ends on a cliffhanger. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to have to log 700+ hours just to get a satisfactory conclusion.

But I’m not here to complain about the show, I’m here to talk about the most recently announced villain. Who is, as you’ll have already deduced if you read the title, none other than Jon Voight.

It’s a step up for Mr. Voight, whose most recent roles of note were in the two National Treasure films as Nicolas Cage’s dad. Oh, and also Bratz. I’m more hung up on the previous role, honestly, because I don’t see how those two could possibly be related. If they were, then Nick Cage’s mom had to be a serious horseface. They could have picked all sorts of actors who looked a lot more like Nick Cage. Ray Dennis Steckler, for example. While not an actor in the strictest sense of the word, he has appeared in a number of his own films. Or anyone with a long face, really. Why Jon Voight, the roundest face in show business?

The Hollywood Reporter has the full story, such as it is:

On the Emmy-winning Fox drama, Voight will play Jack Bauer’s (Kiefer Sutherland) uber-nemesis who is pulling the strings behind next season’s terrorist threat.

The character will be introduced during “24’s” two-hour Season 7 prequel and will be featured heavily in the latter half of the season.

The prequel, now shooting on location in South Africa, is slated to air Nov. 23, with Season 7 of the Imagine TV/20th TV-produced series kicking off in January.

Thanks, we’d momentarily forgotten who played Jack Bauer.

This should be an interesting turn for the show, and hopefully will help to revive it a little after the disappointing sixth season. If nothing else, it should help to distract poor Jon from all the magazine articles about his pregnant daughter and how she likes to get down and dirty with Brad. Ugh.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Categories: TV stories //