Now that the writers' strike is over, watercooler talks shifted from "when will the strike be over" to "what shows will come back, when, and for how many episodes." One show that fans were extremely looking forward to (mostly after seeing the video after the jump) was 24. The series, first set to return in January 2008, was shelved by FOX so that season 7 could air uninterrupted.

When FOX made that announcement, some of us predicted that the show wouldn't return until at least mid-August. Since the network is known for starting it's fall season a bit early for certain shows (e.g., Prison Break), maybe the series could have aired from mid-August until the end of December with a few 2-hour long episodes. But it looks like this option won't happen. Instead, we will have to wait 11 months to see what happens next in Jack Bauer's life!

24 director Jon Cassar and producer/writers David Fury, Evan Katz and Manny Coto fielded an hour's worth of questions from Comic-Con attendees and fans. I've posted some of their insights after the jump in case any of them might be construed as spoiler-esque in spirit.

Brian K. Vaughan, creator of Runaways and writer for the Buffy comics, announced on his website that he has joined Lost as an Executive Story Editor. According to Vaughan, he is neither an executive or an editor, and the title is Hollywood speak for joining the writing staff.

As for what that means for the show... I'm leaning toward not much. Not that Brian K. Vaughan isn't a talented guy, he clearly is, but I don't have much confidence that he will really be allowed to do all he can. Lost has always had talented writers. Although, they have had some trouble hanging on to them. David Fury hopped a boat off the island and went to hang out with Jack Bauer. Javier Grillo-Marxuach later followed suit and made his way to Medium.