Freddie Prinze Jr. to Join "24″

Although the name Freddie Prinze Jr. might be synonymous with cheeky teen romantic comedies, the actor has been cast in the upcoming eighth season of 24, which began production yesterday, though it won't premiere until Jan. 17, 2010. Prinze will be a regular in the role of Davis Cole, a recently returned Marine who runs CTU Field Ops and views Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) as a kind of mentor.  The announcement has already started buzz that Prinze may be the new young stud to take the place of Jack Bauer, and carry on the torch for 24.  However, a closer look reveals that this is hardly the first time the show has introduced a strapping young lad with a grand "Jack Bauer" career path.

Chase Edmunds (James Badge Dale) and Mike Doyle (Ricky Schroder) were both introduced in the past, with the air of one day replacing Mr. Bauer surrounding their characters, though neither ever came close to filling his shoes.  However, Chase lost his hand and sort of dropped out of site, while Mike Doyle had a bomb blow up in his face (which pretty much solidifies that he won't be replacing Jack Bauer anytime soon).

Prinze is the latest to join the cast, but we also learned earlier this week that Jennifer Westfeldt will be joining the cast as ambitious journalist Meredith Reed and Chris Diamantopoulos who will play a tough White House chief-of-staff  Rob Weiss(is there any other kind?).  Also on the eighth season cast of the real-time action series will be John Boyd, playing a geeky but hip CTU analyst named Jonah Schwartz, and Anil Kapoor (from recent Slumdog Millionaire fame) as Arman Hashemi, a Middle Eastern leader.

Source: Hollywood Reporter