The 24 panel at San Diego Comic-Con had Keifer Sutherland, Howard Gordon, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Katee Sackhoff, Freddie Prinze Jr., Anil Kapoor, Brannon Braga, David Fury, Manny Coto, Evan Katz & Sean Gallery in attendance today.

As you can see it was a large contingent and a great mix of production crew and actors.

Of course Keifer was the man.  When he came out the hall erupted, but Katee Sackhoff drew a close 2nd in the volume of applause.  It was great to see, not to mention Katee looking just spectacular.

There are SMALL SPOILERS within, but I don't think they're show killers at all.

Here are some of the items touched on in the panel session for 24:

Keifer: They're going to make Jack's life worth living, hence the introduction of Renee and Jack's daughter last season.  In other words we're going to see Jack in the front part of season 8 being happy.  But alas, it's 24, and we know that's not going to last forever.

Seasons 7 & 8 of 24 are somewhat connected.

Katee Sackhoff is feeling naked in her new role because she needs a gun!  Someone, get that girl a gun.

Mary Lynn Rajsub will be back as Chloe.

At this point, we watched a quick preview of hour 1 of day 8.  Wow, it looks promising.

Season 8 was tough for the writers to start up as they went through 4 different renditions before settling on it.

Keifer is very involved in the script writing, but usually after the first 2 episodes.  Scripts are generated for the first 2 episodes to get the ball rolling, so to speak.

About the preview clip:  Keifer said "Don't be alarmed.  We still blow sh*t up."

Asked about a movie, they said it's possible, but they're not going to do much in that direction until they're seeing more of an end to the series and then they'll start looking at the possibility of a film franchise.

Katee Sackhoff was hesitant to chat about whether she actually will be toting guns, for fear of giving too much away.

One attendee asked, "When will we see Keifer's dad, Donald?"  Keifer replied "He's made a 100 some odd movies, you can see him any time you want."  But on the serious side, he doesn't see that happening, though in season 6 it came real close but a scheduling issue kicked in.

Keifer, in closing showed his gratitude to the masses by saying:

"Thank you so much.  this last 8 years have been the best 8 years of my life.  Can never tell you how grateful I am."

This season is more grounded to how he sees things in life.  The threat for season 8 centers around a peace conference in the U.N. with the U.S. and Iranian presidents being threatened - and the rest goes from there.

When opportunities present themselves, there's always a threat in 24.

24 Premieres on Sunday, Jan. 17th and Monday, Jan. 18th.