24 (season 6) - Production

Production

A shocking twist from the fourth episode was the detonation of a suitcase nuke that killed twelve thousand civilians. The subsequent episodes, however, hardly showed any of the panic that would result from this. David Fury explained the development by saying that the intended writing direction kept fluctuating. "In the early seasons of 24, to map out stories and arc out stories a little bit more than they did, say, in seasons four and five, and four and five turned out to be two of most successful seasons." The nuclear threat was diffused before the end of the season, leading to a story that was more personal for Jack. A panel of writers at Comic-Con said that they originally planned for Tony Almeida to return in the sixth season finale.

A ten minute prequel to the sixth season of 24 is available on the Region-1 version of the Season 5 DVD. The clip begins seven months after Day 5 and shows the Chinese torturing Jack trying to learn the identity of a double agent in their ranks. What appear to be American covert-ops soldiers break into the complex and free Jack, bringing him to a Chinese man named Hong Wai. As Jack flinches in recognition of Hong, the Chinese show up and thank Jack for identifying the double agent they had suspected all along. Cheng Zhi then executes Hong.

Additionally, an epilogue to Season 6 was released called 24: Debrief. It was first made available to American Express cardholders but was later released on the Season 6 DVD.