24 - New Cast Members Added

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From Zap2it.com:

FOX's "24" is expanding its cast some more as it readies its fifth season, adding three veteran actors to the ensemble.

 

British actor Julian Sands ("Timecode," "A Room with a View") will play the villain in the coming season, which picks up 18 months after the events of last year. Peter Weller ("Robocop") and three-time Emmy nominee JoBeth Williams will be on the side of good -- we think.

 

The show is scheduled to premiere over four hours on two nights, Jan. 15 and 16, with a crisis looming after "national security is brutally breached." But Jack Bauer (series star Kiefer Sutherland) is nowhere near the Counter Terrorism Unit, as he's presumed dead to all but a few people within CTU. Instead, he's taken up a new life with a woman (Connie Britton, "Spin City") and her teenage son (Brady Corbet).

 

Weller, who stars in NBC's remake of "The Poseidon Adventure," will play Christopher Henderson, the federal agent who recruited Jack to CTU more than a decade ago. Williams, recently seen in "Fever Pitch" and TNT's "14 Hours," will play Henderson's wife, Miriam. Sands' character, Vladamir Bierko, is a billionaire and, as FOX bluntly states, a "bad guy." He appeared in the A&E film "Napoleon" in 2002 and recently guest-starred on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."

 

Weller, Williams and Sands bring to five the number of new cast members on "24" this season. Jean Smart ("Frasier," "Munich") will play the first lady, and Sean Astin ("The Lord of the Rings") has joined the CTU team.

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They've also added Manny Coto as a producer (which most people are betting that's how Peter Weller was cast) as well as former Lost writer/producer David Fury (who wrote Lost's Walkabout, an Emmy nominated episode). There are also rumours that Senator John McCain may appear as himself this season. Day 5 is going to rock!