‘LOTR’s Sean Astin joins ’24’ for its fifth season

MUMBAI: The clock has already started ticking for the fifth season of US broadcaster Fox’s show 24. The season kicks off in January and will see Sean Astin The Lord of the Rings, Jean Smart Garden State and Connie Britton Friday Night Lights joining the cast.
 
 

In India the show airs on action orinted AXN and stars Kiefer Sutherland as counter terrorism agent Jack Bauer. The title refers to each hour in his life. In the fourth season he and a team of agents were able to prevent a criminal mastermind from detonating a nuclear bomb just minutes before it would have killed millions of people and changed the world forever.
 
 

Season five picks up 18 months later as national security is brutally breached and the clock begins to tick again. A presumably dead Jack Bauer is actually living a new life with Connie Britton) and her son. Panicky US President Logan is running the US. Smart plays First Lady Martha Logan.