Fox 24 revival casts Miranda Otto as female lead

Miranda Otto has been cast as the female lead in Fox’s 24 reboot.

The Lord of the Rings actress is coming off her mesmerizing arc during the fifth season of 24 producer Howard Gordon’s other terrorism thriller, Showtime’s Homeland. In the 24: Legacy pilot, she’ll play Rebecca Ingram, the “blazing smart former head of CTU. Now married to Senator John Donovan (not yet cast), Rebecca is struggling with second thoughts about having left counterterrorism agency.”

Otto was likely the producers’ first choice to play the role of Ingram, who was originally described in the casting notice as “a Miranda Otto-type.” She joins the previously announced Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton), who will star as a former Army Ranger who comes home to Virginia and is “pulled back into action as his past comes looking for him.”

None of the original 24 cast is expected to appear in the new version, which Fox ordered to pilot earlier this month. Unlike the first version of the series, where Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) was basically a lone wolf protagonist for nine seasons, the new 24 will have Hawkins and Otto effectively playing co-leads. If given a series order, 24: Legacy will also play looser with the original show’s distinctive “real time” format, with a 12-episode order instead of 24 episodes.