Jon Voight is returning to the small screen for the first time in four decades and what better comeback than portraying a villain on the upcoming seventh season of “24”?

The Hollywood Reporter is announcing that Jon Voight has signed on as a recurring character on the upcoming seventh season of the Fox drama “24.” Voight will be Jack Bauer’s greatest nemesis, who will be behind this season’s terrorist threat.

We will get our first glimpse of the wicked character during the two-hour Season 7 prequel, currently shooting on location in South Africa. It is slated to air November 23 and fans of the series will have to keep their patience for the January start of the seventh season.

Voight is supposed to be featured heavily in the latter half of the season.

Producers of the Emmy-winning show can now add the second high-profile name to their list of guest villains. Season 1 featured Dennis Hopper in the final episodes as Serbian nationalist Victor Drazen.

The 69-year-old Voight has not been in a TV series since the 1960s, in the incipient phase of his career. Some forty years ago, the young actor appeared in several episodes of “Gunsmoke,” as well as on “Naked City,” “The Defenders” and “Twelve O’clock High.”

In 1969 he starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in “Midnight Cowboy,” the film that would jumpstart his career.

In the following years, Voight received four Academy Award nominations and won the coveted statuette for 1978’s “Coming Home.” Last year, he reprised his role as Nicolas Cage’s father in “National Treasure: Book of Secrets.”

“24’s” seventh season had been scheduled to premiere in January but was postponed due to the Hollywood writers’ strike. Star Kiefer Sutherland has won several awards for his work on the series, including an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 2006, as well as one Golden Globe, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards in previous years.

The show’s seventh season will feature actress-comedian Janeane Garofalo as a government agent investigating a crisis that Jack Bauer and his team are faced with. Cherry Jones will portray President Allison Taylor.