TV

In new ‘24,’ Jack Bauer goes from hunter to hunted

Jack Bauer was always meant to live another day, it turns out.

When we last saw him, in the series finale that aired May 24, 2010, Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) was a wanted man. Regarded by the US government as a traitor and a psychopath for having killed two Russian diplomats following the murder of his girlfriend, he had escaped aided by his longtime ally Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub).

“24: Live Another Day,” which debuts Monday night at 8 p.m. on Fox, continues the thrilling adventure of Jack, an agent at the Counterterrorism Unit adept at saving entire nations from terrorist attacks, often at great personal expense. He lost numerous loved ones and friends over eight seasons, including wife Teri (Leslie Hope).

Jack makes his re-entry into the show in London, at an abandoned factory that has aroused the interest of the CIA at a secret “black site.” Deploying a team of agents to capture “a man with a multiagency warrant against him,” station commander Steve Navarro (Benjamin Bratt) gets a good look at Bauer on a monitor. He’s wearing a black hoodie. Why Bauer wants access to the building will have longtime fans crashing Twitter.

How great is it to see Jack Bauer again? Not only is he one of TV’s classic characters — funny how he shares initials with both James Bond and Jason Bourne — he’s a fearless leader and a fierce outsider who’s at his best when his back is up against the wall. Seeing his profile on a grainy monitor at CIA headquarters is a rush. You know s - - t is going to happen.

“I enjoy being the underdog,” Sutherland, on the phone from the set, tells The Post. “A lot of the things he’s come to rely upon have been turned upside down. Instead of hunting, Jack is the one who’s hunted.”

Though he hasn’t played Bauer in four years, Sutherland, now 47, remains as agile as ever. All of his action verbs — running, jumping, punching — are still working for him, and he delivers with his customary flinty power.

The son of Donald Sutherland (“M*A*S*H,” “Ordinary People”), the actor inherited his father’s rangy frame and devilish glint, which led to him being cast as the bad boy in a string of mid-’80s films such as “Stand by Me.” Hailed as one of Hollywood’s next big things — complete with an engagement to Julia Roberts that was broken off at the eleventh hour — the younger Sutherland’s star was rising, thanks to hits like “Young Guns,” before things fizzled with several middling movies.

I enjoy being the underdog. Instead of hunting, Jack is the one who’s hunted now.

 - Kiefer Sutherland
When the role of Jack Bauer came along in 2001, Sutherland, though steadily working in films, hadn’t had a hit in years (anybody remember “Truth or Consequences, N.M.”?) At the time, television was a death sentence for cinema actors — who knew that they’d all end up working there? — but he had nothing to lose by doing TV. More to the point, Jack Bauer was the kind of badass Sutherland was destined to play.

“I did 196 episodes [of ‘24’]; that’s almost the equivalent of doing 100 movies,” Sutherland says. “Certainly now I’m older, and I was a lot younger when I started, and the emotional root [of the role] is something I’m comfortable with.”

Surrounded by a crack team of writers and producers, Sutherland gave viewers something they didn’t know they wanted: an adrenaline rush of espionage and action that played on a split screen. The result was a sensation that brought Emmy Awards to the show and Sutherland in 2006.

It also made him a wealthy man. (He reportedly was earning $550,000 per episode in 2009, or roughly $10 million a year.)

When he was approached to do the show again, Sutherland says, he was “scared to death he wouldn’t have the stamina. I thought, ‘Why on earth would you open that up again?’ It took me 15 minutes to say yes.”

“24: Live Another Day” is dramatically different from the original series in one sense: It plays with the show’s real-time format, smushing the 24-hour day into just 12 segments. Sutherland promises fans will not feel cheated. “It’s a 12-hour representation of a 24-hour day,” he says. The series’ famous time clock will speed up as needed to keep things zipping along. “If I have to get on a plane or a train to pick up a clue, we can have one episode end with me getting on board and begin another with me getting off.”

Kate Morgan (Yvonne Strahovski) tracks a suspect in Part One of the special two-hour season premiere episode.Daniel Smith/FOX
Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer.Daniel Smith/FOX

Executive producer Howard Gordon, who had the character of Jack Bauer in his head for a year before he ever wrote a script, acknowledges this truncated format is a bow to budgets and changes that have swept through the television landscape in the past four years. “People’s attention spans are shortening,” he says. “It’s a grueling experience to do 24 episodes year after year. For actors and writers, it’s a marathon.”

The show gets a lot of traction, though, moving from the United States to London. Sutherland says shooting in London has been “fantastic,” but it also makes sense for the story. “[Jack] would have been coming out of Eastern Europe,” he says. “It was the place he could get to quickest within [24 hours].”

Several key relationships in Jack’s life will be re-examined during the series, most importantly with his protégée Chloe, who started out on the show as a timid analyst at the Counterterrorism Unit and eventually became Jack’s most trusted colleague. Viewers will barely recognize the actress, who now sports a ragged “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” haircut. Even Sutherland did a double-take.

“She looks like Joan Jett,” he says. “I said to her, ‘Where’s the rest of the band?’ ”

Chloe comes back into the picture with a complicated set of circumstances. Having been accused of treason, she is “public enemy No. 2,” says executive producer Evan Katz. “Because of her experiences with Jack, she turned against the government.”

“24: Live Another Day” also introduces a major new woman into Jack’s life — CIA agent Kate Morgan, played by Yvonne Strahovski, an Australian actress of Polish descent. In the first episode, she’s packing up at the CIA following a scandal in which her reputation was tarnished when her husband was found guilty of selling secrets to the Chinese. Soon, she becomes Jack’s nemesis.

“She’s a woman but personifies characteristics of Jack’s from Season 1, and there’s a point where he acknowledges that,” Sutherland says.

“Kate is cut from the same cloth,” Gordon says. “Like Jack, she’s been diminished institutionally, by her husband. It gave her more obstacles to overcome. The relationship [between Jack and Kate] is modeled after Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones in ‘The Fugitive.’ ”

Strahovski is hardly a newcomer to American TV, having had key roles on NBC’s “Chuck” and Showtime’s “Dexter.” Speaking by phone from London, the actress says she accepted the role because she “liked Kate’s back story. She’s been demoted. It allows her to prove herself.”

Sutherland has completed eight of the 12 episodes that make up the ninth season and, as of now, there are no plans to continue beyond that.

The series is a close-ended deal, though executive producer Manny Coto says, “We can’t promise this won’t be a cliffhanger.”

As for the “24” movie that people have been talking about for years, that, too, is a possibility. “My job is to always make them good,” Sutherland says. “If something were to happen, I’m open to saying yes.”

When you have the role of a lifetime, why not?

Who’s who on the new “24”

Kate Morgan (Yvonne Strahovski)

Daniel Smith/FOX
Sultry CIA agent whose husband turned out to be a traitor. About to get relocated from London to the US, until she figures out why Jack Bauer is in London and why he is on CIA premises.

Sometimes smarter than her superiors.

Steve Navarro (Benjamin Bratt)

In charge of CIA headquarters in London. Must handle the Kate Morgan transfer swiftly. Comes upon an opportunity to advance his status in the eyes of the US government regarding Bauer.

President James Heller (William Devane)

Daniel Smith/FOX
In London to broker a treaty with the British. Gamely tries to hide that he has a rapidly progressing case of Alzheimer’s disease. His daughter, Audrey, is married to his chief of staff, Mark Boudreau.

Mark Boudreau (Tate Donovan)

Heller’s chief of staff and son-in-law. Tries to keep the press from figuring out that the president is going soft in the brain and determined to keep the knowledge that Bauer is in London from Heller and Audrey.

Audrey Raines (Kim Raver)

Daniel Smith/FOX
Defense department liaison to the Counterrorism Unit with an estranged husband, Paul. She eventually became Jack’s girlfriend and loves him still, even though he tortured her husband on suspicion of terrorism.

Erik Ritter (Gbenga Akinnagbe)

Daniel Smith/FOX
A CIA agent with a strong physical presence. He had hoped to replace Kate Morgan on the job. At first, he is reluctant to work with her, but slowly gains respect for her abilities.

Adrian Cross (Michael Wincott)

Adrian is the leader of “Open Cell,” a group of hackers who endeavor to reveal government secrets around the globe. Closely aligned with Chloe. Makes his entrance in the second hour of “24: Live Another Day.”

Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland)

Counterterrorism expert who saved the world many times on the original “24” series. Currently a fugitive wanted for the murder of two Russian diplomats killed when he went rogue after the murder of his girlfriend in Season 8. In the Season 9 premiere, Jack lures the CIA to a deserted factory as a way of getting captured by agents and hauled into CIA headquarters. What and who is he after?

Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub)

Daniel Smith/FOX
She started out as an agent at the Counterterrorism Unit but became Jack’s most trusted colleague, and learned the art of subversive behavior at his hand. In Season 9, she has been charged with treason and is being held prisoner by the US government for releasing classified US documents and helping Jack Bauer escape capture in America.